By Jim Lowell
Last Updated: 1/3/2006 12:01:00 AM
"WATERTOWN, Mass. (MarketWatch) -- Unveiling of my Hot Hands ETF is now officially an annual event.
And, if you followed the Hot Hands for 2005, it would have been a profitable event: last year's Hot Hands ETF was the iShares S&P Latin American 40 - and it gained 54.5% in 2005, thank you very much.
What's a Hot Hands ETF you ask? Easy. Last year, I introduced a simple and straightforward way to invest in exchange-traded funds: buy last year's best performing one. At the start of each and every New Year, buying the prior year's top-performing ETF turns out to be a stellar strategy. See column from a year ago.
No way?
The rewards, as demonstrated since January 2001 (when there were enough ETFs in existence to start tracking this strategy), puts performance posers in their place -- and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg to sidle up to the bar of year-end results and spit in the eye of the nearest high priced hedge fund.
But before I get to the strategy's details, and before I count down to my Hot Hand ETF For 2006, let me throw what will now be my annual monkey wrench into this particular financial engine.
While this strategy does reveal a healthy trend, the data only goes back five years; hardly long term. Yes, of course, past performance doesn't guarantee that the sun will rise tomorrow, but it also doesn't mean that you shouldn't set the alarm clock. Further, I do not advocate sinking your entire investment kit and caboodle into one of anything -- ever. That would foolishly fly against the diversified investment approach that I practice and preach personally and professionally. So, be forewarned: this isn't meant to be an all-or-nothing strategy. But it could be a complementary one.
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