No cherries left to pick

Selectivity is all well and good when there are viable names to choose from. But what happens when the whole market looks like a negative bet, asks Toby Nangle

"Be selective." This piece of advice from sell-side strategists always gives me a bit of a chuckle. And if my inbox is at all representative, this is the advice that is being dished out most frequently to the buy side. Apart from being the safest strategy for a strategist to recommend ("I said some would go up and some would go down; not my fault if you picked the wrong credits!"), the reasons for advising selectivity are plain to see. Spreads are low and there doesn't appear to be much room for