Dewhirst: Fear, greed and panic

At a time of widespread gloom, it is especially appropriate to wish investors a prosperous New Year. I left the business of providing free money-losing advice a decade ago, but this is such a special occasion that it is worth making an exception - pro-bono.

That is because the Fear Industry has become so pervasive it is not doing investors any good. Therefore, outrageous optimism is overdue from somewhere, if only to provide balance. The good news is my new Panic Indicator has just flashed only its ninth buy signal in 37 years. It predicts the total return on global equities will be 27% in one year and 43% in two years. Panic can be measured by the relative performance of greed and fear portfolios. The first can be represented by the total returns on an index of global equities, while the second is based on what investors mostly buy, whe...