The year was 1975. New York City was in financial trouble. It had to borrow to pay its operating expenses. And lenders were getting tough. So Mayor Abe Beame turned to Washington, begging for a bailout. But America still had a vestigial sense of financial integrity back then.

Last week was just like 2008 again. The FTSE 100 was up 2.5% on the week by mid-Wednesday, only to fall by almost 5% before Friday’s close. There were plenty of things to blame the poor performance on. We had some poor jobless figures in the US. Then of course there’s the fast-growing eurozone debt crisis. Greece might be in the biggest mess, but other borrowers in the region are also coming under the microscope.

If capital growth is your goal then take a leaf out of Shaun Le Roux’s book. His fund, the PSG Alphen Growth Fund, over 12 months, holds pole position out of 65 other funds in its sector and manages to come in 6th out of 454. In fact, at the end of November 2009 he was up 40.9% – Easily out performing the JSE All Share Index.  And what makes it truly spectacular is that he has not loaded up on risk as through out 2009 his majority holding were solid blue chips.
What’s his secret?

There are at least three big things that markets are fretting about just now. There are the potential new banking rules in the US. There’s China’s economy and its general direction - will the authorities tighten too fast or too slow? And then there’s Greece.