The rationality of market timing in managing individual clients’ assets

Abstract

Despite the vast literature on timing and an active approach to investment, it appears that there are no publications presenting the perspective of professionals responsible for managing wealthy clients’ assets. Most of the research and experience focus on the field of the portfolio theory or institutional approach, which cannot be directly transferred to the area of study described above. In the authors’ opinion, there are too many harmful myths that get into the minds of client advisors and clients themselves. The extremely difficult art of actively changing allocations can only be harmful when applied to clients’ portfolio in the long-term approach. The main obstacles here are the limited possibilities of such actions as well as a number of behavioural errors. Modifying and managing such activities appears to be the most important task for a professional managing clients’ property. The article presents simple but also, as confirmed in the research, the most effective methods to replace timing, and simultaneously protect against the negative effects of behavioural errors.