The purpose of this mini bio is to give some context to my comments.

I was an occasional investor until 1999. Then I was lucky enough to be part owner of a business that others wanted to pay a lot of money for. Since then, I have concentrated on managing my own money.

The period of 2000-2002 was not an ideal time to start managing investments. I learnt a lot of hard lessons, but these lessons have stood me well, particularly in 2008.

I have worked and invested internationally pretty much all my career. I travel frequently and emerging markets remain a strong interest of mine.

I split my funds between trading and investment, with the investment portfolio being much larger. My trading is mostly mechanical and my investment discretionary.

There are many, many people more wealthy than I am, but until I make a big mistake, I am quite comfortable. This means that overall, I am risk averse. I am not interested in managing anyone's money and I have nothing to sell, so my comments have no agenda attached.

I find SA, including many of the comments, to be useful and informative. I have found that a contrarian instinct is possibly the most valuable thing that an investor can have. Consequently, I am most interested in fine tuning my thoughts where my views diverge from the majority opinion.