‘No matter what the market opportunities look like at the moment, an investor must bear four basic principles in mind: firstly, the investments must have a definite purpose; secondly, the investment tools must therefore be chosen accordingly; thirdly, the investment process must have clear-cut terms and stages (each of which presupposes implementation of different tools). Finally, the adequate risk assessment is simply crucial,’ says Accord Invest’s Deputy GD Konstantin Selyanin.

‘I find investing in Russian shares a good idea, despite the fact that they are currently rather underestimated for a number of reasons, often non-economic ones. The Russian market’s profit and capitalization ratio is now below the figures for a decade ago: even though most companies have expanded quite a bit since 1998 and are now stable businesses with greater profits, the capitalization went up very little in comparison with the other development indicators. All this has resulted in a unique state of events when short-term non-economic factors are of secondary importance and the economic ones actually rule the roost,’ he observes.

‘It’s also wise to keep one’s money in the form of bank deposits (banks have been offering nice terms on these lately), precious metals (in the form of metallic bank accounts), and real estate (country cottages and land allotments only),’ Selyanin notes.