A buy-low, sell-high investment methodology: The case of bulk shipping

Investment success in a cyclical market, such as the international bulk shipping market, can be dramatically enhanced by a cost-based buy-low, sell-high investment strategy. The authors developed an estimator of relative price level for a general asset using net present value techniques and publicly available information on costs and revenues. The estimator compares market price with a cost-based nominal price and thus identifies relative highs and lows in a market. As a test, the authors used the estimator on historical data to simulate how investment decisions could have been made in the bulk shipping market. Investment strategies using the estimator to time acquisitions and sales perform significantly better than a ‘blind’ investment strategy (where ships are acquired and sold at fixed time intervals).