John Husselbee: The investment clock

First referenced in 1930s

clock • 4 min read

The investment clock is a useful way of showing how a business cycle typically develops over time, writes John Husselbee, and has proved as good a method as any of pinpointing ‘where we are' in terms of markets and economies...

While many have claimed its invention - and a number of investors have certainly evolved the concept over the years - the idea of the investment clock goes back to the 1930s when it was first published in London Evening News. Noise or sentiment (primarily those old classics of fear and greed) are typically the drivers behind short-term market direction. Over the longer term, however, more fundamental factors tend to dominate and, arguably, the most important are the path of inflation and economic growth. This is ultimately the thinking behind the investment clock, with these forces pe...

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