If you are an investor, you owe it to yourself to know about the Retail Distribution Review (RDR), as it's a key part of the Financial Services Authority's (FSA) consumer protection strategy.

The Retail Distribution Review aims to establish a resilient, effective and attractive retail investment market. This means that you'll be able to have more confidence and trust in the retirement & investment planning advice you receive.

If your plan is to outperform the stock market over the long-term, you absolutely have to know the market's current state of health. Is it in a healthy uptrend, meaning it is safe to invest, or is it showing signs of an unhealthy downtrend? If it's the later, you should be out on the sidelines in the safety of an ISA cash park.

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.