RINO (Republican In Name Only) is frequently used to castigate those Republicans who talk a good game, but then do little to follow through on conservative principles. Perhaps, there is room for another acronym: TINO (Tactical In Name Only). After highlighting the strong and rising demand for tactical strategies, the WSJ then points out that tactical means many things to many people. Many investment professionals quickly picked up on the fact that it makes good business sense to talk a good tactical investment game, but the implementation part becomes fuzzy.
The take-away may be that tactical is less a strategy than a philosophy—that markets demand attention and action. But how does an investor know what, exactly, his adviser means by “tactical”? And how can you tell smart tactical trading from trigger-happy market timing?
The Systematic in Systematic Relative Strength is the key. Relative strength is an effective tool for making tactical investment choices, but if applied haphazardly it is useless. I always enjoy the reaction from those who actually take the time to read our white papers (here and here). Those who do read and understand those papers will have a whole new appreciation for the role of disciplined execution when it comes to tactical investing.
For us, tactical is both philosophy and strategy.
Ideas are easy. It’s the execution of ideas that really separates the sheep from the goats. -Sue Grafton
HT: Abnormal Returns
