For 2012, my expectations and outlook remain the same as they were at the beginning of the year. I expect my benchmark the Nasdaq Composite to make a gain in excess of 18.3% and my aim is to outperform the Nasdaq.

The year has started with a bang. The Nasdaq Composite has returned extremely impressive year to date gains of 11.5%. The FTSE 100 is up a respectable 5.9%, and my account is up 10.6%.

HIRE CAR™ is a screening tool I created to help me quickly find quality investment funds.

Funds are managed and controlled by a professional fund manager. The manager makes investment decisions on what companies to buy and what to sell.

When the market is healthy, my aim is to find the best fund manager using HIRE CAR™ as my guide. Here's a brief introduction to its track record.

One of the questions we are most often asked by potential investors is a simple one - 'is now a good time to invest?'.

In a recent edition of our monthly premium client newsletter The Big Picture, Stephen Sutherland, our Chief Investment Strategist, wrote:

“My take is and has been for some time now that the market over the next decade will outperform. There are numerous facts and statistics that point to the likelihood of outperformance and the behaviour of the market over the last three years gives me even more reasons to believe a stock market boom may have already begun. My belief is the ‘boom period’ started back in 2009.”

Today I wanted to expand on one of my Top Ten Tips for Successful ISA investing and the tip in question is Tip 4: 'Park in cash during a bear market' (for more on my other nine tips, please just download our Top 10 Tips for Successful ISA Investing).

Your aim as an ISA and SIPP investor should be to profit in rising markets and protect in falling markets. This is not easy to do but is made easier when you understand how market cycles operate.

Some people who are interested in our Investment Guidance Service want to know more about portfolio protection in falling markets. In this post, I’ll look at this in more detail.

Our secret weapon is ISACO’s lead investor. He’s a trend follower and market timer, whose aim is to get in sync with the market’s trend and direction. Rather than swimming against a current, he prefers to swim with it. A full economic cycle lasts about 5 years and consists of a bull market and bear market. A bull market is when the market forms an uptrend and a bear market is when the market forms a downtrend. 

Today, I’d like to talk more about the third of my top ten tips for successful ISA investing, which is ‘Buy Quality Investment Funds’ (for more on my other nine tips, please just download our Top 10 Tips for Successful ISA Investing).

My aim is to invest when the market is healthy. When it’s unhealthy I stay in a cash-based fund to protect potential downside losses. The Fidelity ISA Cash Park is one I personally use.

People who like ISACO’s Investment Guidance Service brochure normally ask ‘how’ we’ve helped our clients achieve market beating performance.

We have been successful in helping our clients achieve better ISA performance by offering investment guidance from an investor who has historically ‘beaten’ the stock market. Using a talented investor with a great track record has proved to be ISACO’s secret weapon.

Today I’d like to talk more about the second of my top ten tips for successful ISA investing which is ‘Be Active’ (for more on my other nine tips, please just download our Top 10 Tips for Successful ISA Investing).

Whenever I talk about timing the market, I normally mention my dislike for the ‘buy and hold’ strategy.  I prefer active ISA investment.

It’s a fact, the amount of capital growth you achieve each year will directly impact the time it takes to achieve your ISA and SIPP goals. 

When you look at the definition of capital growth, you’ll see that it’s the increase in the market price of an asset. This is also known as its ‘capital appreciation’. However to keep things simple, I’ll be referring to capital growth as the annual gains an investor makes each year in their ISA and SIPP portfolio.

When we help investors plan for the future, we take them through our Investment Appraisal process. This has many similarities to a portfolio analysis, but with the particular needs of ISA and SIPP investors in mind.