One reason for the popularity of the clinic is that, short of stumping up a few hundred quid for a one-on-one portfolio review by an IFA, it's hard to find such guidance elsewhere, even if we have to keep it somewhat general for regulatory reasons. And even if you do want to go down the one-on-one route, few IFAs can match the portfolio construction knowledge with the specific product knowledge many of the outside contributors to the column bring each week.
That's why I was struck by something last week's expert Alan Steel wrote – he referenced William Bernstein's belief that one in 10,000 private investors was likely to succeed. In an age where we are all being actively encouraged to take more of a hands on role in managing our own investments and pensions that's a worrying statistic, should it be true. Obviously we at Investors Chronicle don't think it is – and we have plenty of reader surveys and letters to suggest that rather more than one in 10,000 can beat the market. Sure many private investors make lots of silly mistakes, but they make lots of good decisions, too – we don't hear so much about those, another reason why our portfolio clinic is useful.
That private investors can do well is all the more amazing given how badly they are generally treated in comparison to the professional investment community. Things may be changing, but it is undeniable that we are still subject to higher charges and restrictions on what we can by and even what information we can access to help us make better decisions. Worse still, the myth of the mug punting private investor only encourages regulators to make life harder still by placing ever more restrictions upon us. Perpetuating the myth of private investor inadequacy can only serve to send them rushing for the arms of the experts.
The trouble is, those experts often don't do a much better job than investors could do themselves, for reasons we explain in this weeks cover feature. And exploiting their weaknesses – guerrilla style – in fact means private investors have some major advantages over the pros that make the odds of beating them a lot shorter than 10,000 to 1.
