Retail investor and businessman Felix Lee, 48, believes in staying invested for the long haul, even during times of poor market sentiment. He admits to feeling anxious about the present volatile state of equity markets, but is not afraid.

'If you have diversified your investments nicely, there is a sense of anxiety towards your mid-term investments, but the emotion is not one of fear,' said Mr Lee.

His investment portfolio includes Prudential's Prulink Singapore Managed Fund and the First State Bridge Fund which he has held for 12 and five years, respectively.

He attributes his ability to ignore the noise in the market to proper asset allocation and an understanding of his risk profile.

'My investments are apportioned into current, three-year and five-year horizons. For my mid- to long-term investments, I don't bother with the ups and downs because I'm not cashing out now,' said Mr Lee, who is willing to stomach investment losses of up to 20 per cent in a year.

'There is no point in timing the market because I'm investing for the long haul.'

After all, economies do move in cycles, he added.

Fortunately for him, his portfolio is still above water, with returns of 4 to 5 per cent so far this year, down from returns of 8 to 12 per cent last year.

Still, some investments have a shelf life and Mr Lee emphasised that this is the case for thematic funds as their popularity was fuelled by trends.

For instance, he invested $150,000 in two BRIC funds for a year before deciding to liquidate them about five months ago when the funds appeared to be losing strength.

BRIC funds invest in the economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China and were hotly pursued by investors in the past few years.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on August 31, 2008.