20 Ophthalmology Business • March 2017
How to get into position
by Roger Balser
At Balser Wealth Management,
we're not that interested in "relative"
returns, and you shouldn't be either.
What we are interested in is absolute
returns.
The research method I use (called
"point and figure technical analysis")
is not perfect. But it does an ample
job of letting me know when supply
bypasses demand. This holds true
whether we're looking at a mutual
fund, an individual stock, a stock
sector, or the market as a whole.
Each and every time supply passes
demand, lower prices are certain to
follow. Subsequently, you should take
where the market dropped 20%
would be called "significant perfor-
mance" relative to the rest of the
market. This is because folks in the
market back then were more inter-
ested in "relative returns" and not
"absolute returns."
The reason so many were inter-
ested in "relative" returns was simply
because throughout the 1980s and
1990s, we were on a tear in a secu-
lar bull market. Every pull back was
simply a great buying opportunity.
You were labeled a hero if the market
dropped 25% in 1 year and you only
lost 10%.
Not today.
I
magine a scenario where the
market drops 20% this year.
Sounds drastic, but in fact it
did just that in 2001, again in
2002, and once again in 2008.
Back then, many investors used the
majority of the next big move up
just getting back to even instead of
making money.
But suppose in this scenario you
were able to avoid the "big hit" and
experience a flat return or just a mi-
nuscule loss. You'd be in good shape
going into the next move up in the
market.
Back in the 1980s and 1990s,
absorbing just a small loss in a year
