Another equity sell-off by March, says Nader Naeimi of AMP Capital

If you were planning on putting your money back into stocks, you might want to hold on. That’s the message from Nader Naeimi of AMP Capital Investors who’s still hanging on to the bulk of his cash reserves for another possible sell-off by March.

After an initial sharp sell-off, equity markets typically have a brief recovery before another bout of sustained selling, said Naeimi, AMP’s head of dynamic markets who helps oversee about $120 billion at the firm. After moving some 30 per cent of his assets to cash last year, Naeimi is waiting for that second round to occur before jumping back in.

“The plan is to buy in the second leg down, usually it’s best to wait for the markets to build a base before committing heavily back into the buy side,” Naeimi said. “As we go to the Fed meeting March 9, I think there will be more potential volatility weakness.”

Still, Naeimi is dipping his toes back into the stock market and has started returning to some cyclical positions including energy, financials and Japanese equities. He is also impressed by the resilience of emerging market stocks and currencies during the rout and rising volatility. “That’s a great sign,” he said. “So this weakness, we’re using that weakness to buy into emerging market equities as well.”