With 2014 drawing to a close, there's a good chance you're a fair bit poorer now than you were this time last month.
Christmas is always an expensive time of year. Families go on pricey once-a-year holidays and throw parties while many also spend a fortune on gift-giving. Of course, investors who have a good portion of their wealth tied up in the stock market are also nursing their wounds after what has seemed like a rollercoaster ride in recent months.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) rocketed to a fresh multi-year high in September, endured a horror stretch through to the middle of October and then recovered again for November. Since then however, it's been all downhill with very few opportunities for investors to catch their breath.
In fact, the benchmark index is down 9% since September and has now endured six consecutive days in the red, led down by companies in the mining and energy sectors. With iron ore and oil prices both plumbing five-year lows, companies like BHP Billiton Limited (ASX: BHP), Woodside Petroleum Limited (ASX: WPL) and the once high-flying Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (ASX: LNG) have all taken a nosedive.
Of course, they're not the only ones to have suffered with Woolworths Limited (ASX: WOW), Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES) and Computershare Limited (ASX: CPU) all having plunged in value, too.
As painful as the ride has been however, there is still an opportunity for you to position yourself to profit handsomely in 2015.
The secret to making a fortune in 2015
I'm not even going to try to predict when the market will bottom out, but if there is one thing I'm certain of it's that times like these are amongst the best opportunities to buy high-quality stocks.
Indeed, despite the fact that my portfolio has taken a big hit recently, I've been actively buying stocks with some of the companies that I perceive as being amongst the best stocks on the ASX trading at heavily discounted prices.
For each stock that I purchased, I couldn't find any reasons as to why they might be trending lower, other than the fact that they are simply following the rest of the market downwards. With their underlying businesses still well and truly intact, I would have been crazy not to buy them while they were trading at such attractive prices.
So even though I – like most other investors – have lost money in recent months, I couldn't be happier leading into Christmas knowing that I have given myself an outstanding chance of realising market-beating returns in 2015.
