Finding the Bull Inside the Bear: Active Management Strategies for Expansions, Contractions, and Everything in Between

Today, we are in a new investment climate, with shorter and less pronounced investment cycles. Add to that the explosion in information availability and heightened investor awareness of economic developments and news events. As a result, investment professionals and their clients must be more vigilant than ever. They need to be astute about the underlying condition of the economy and the likely impact on the stock market, and agile in their decision-making and their actions. In other words, in this new investment paradigm, investors need to embrace a new way of approaching and reacting to the market by applying active management.

In Finding the Bull Inside the Bear, Economist and Senior Portfolio Manager Robert N. Stein of Astor Asset Management explains the importance of active management as part of a proactive approach to investing. As Rob explains, active management allows financial professionals and their clients to pursue the goal of making profits in any type of market climate, regardless of market direction, volatility, or bull or bear condition.

With active management, investors are able to limit losses during contractions, providing a better base from which to build profits during expansion. In other words, they will ''Find the Bull Inside the Bear''--with potentially less risk, fewer losses, and improved overall returns.