Investing: Betting Against The Crowd

Profile: Amit Wadhwaney shuns trends and buys stocks most investors consider toxic

"To invest in something that's popular when it's popular is the kiss of death," says Amit Wadhwaney, manager of the New York--based Third Avenue International Value Fund. Indeed, there's no more reliable way of earning dismal long-term returns than betting on what's hot. Consider some of the many ill-fated outbreaks of investor madness that have gripped Asia in recent decades: the giddiness over Japanese stocks in the late 1980s, the Hong Kong property bubble of the 1990s, euphoria over Chinese red chips in 1996-97 and the mad rise of Thai banking stocks before the carnage of the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis....

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!