He made a confident prediction in the spring of 2000 that shares with

He made a confident prediction in the spring of 2000 that shares with income and high yields would increasingly become the flavour of the day, once the bull market topped out. It is too early to start looking at next year and beyond, but for the moment there is some reasonable momentum building in the main market indices. It often pays to look at what the smart money, rather than smart punditry, is going for in events of this kind.There seems no reason, in the short term, not to expect the current rally in the markets to continue until the end of the year. He must have nerves, and other anatomical bits, of steel.Which leaves me pondering one other investment that managed to double I bought shares in Go-Ahead Group in 2001 for 660p each.

I still have them and they are up to £13.30 per share this week, fuelled, I think, by some profitable franchises and the long-term trend to consolidation in the sector.Great, you might think. The chances are we’ll have to settle for rather less than 400p next time I shall be hanging on until Mr Green comes to call again I hope he will not be long delayed. After the Christmas trading news would seem as good a time as any, I guess.A quick review of my recent punts reveals that Matrix Communications, a small IT outfit, continues to make progress I bought at 140p and it’s now crested the 150p mark. Mr Green is the type who will wait until the morale of shareholders, staff and managers is at a sufficiently low ebb (but when the business still has a hope of turnaround) to make his move.

Mr Hargreave bought 25,000 shares for his Marlborough Special Situations fund last week and that takes his holding to 350,000 shares or 1.2 per cent of Matrix’s £42m market capitalisation. For a small company that receives comparatively scant attention from the press, it is certainly doing well.There was one recent newspaper report that said that an AA-rated fund manager named Giles Hargreave had bought shares in Matrix after last week’s optimistic trading statement and talk of an early dividend. Were I in possession of 10 per cent of his ability, I would be wealthy beyond my dreams. He’s not the sort of chap who buys into M&S and then hopes against hope that a team of clowns running it can stop throwing buckets of feathers and custard pies around long enough to see the mess this great business has got into and do something about it, sharpish.No.