Focus on the fundamentals

Investing in shares is a risky business - that's why it can ultimately be so rewarding. But at times like these, people sometimes forget that the value of shares can go up as well as down. Looking back over the past decade and a half, it is clear that once the market establishes a trend, the trend often takes on a life of its own. After the difficult days of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the market embarked on an upward trend that culminated in the "all internet-related stocks will make you a million" frenzy of 1999. Stocks - particularly technology stocks - were going up and up; we had...