START of the year and it was time for a bit of soothsaying by members of RICH - Ridings investment Club Holdings - as they sat down to a sumptuous Chinese dinner in a private room at the Royal Dragon, York. (Well, there's nothing like a bit of eastern mysticism, is there?)

So what were the overall conclusions of this band of successful executives and former executives of Nestle in York as they tucked into their egg foo yungs and crispy duck?

Well, 2001 is likely to be more sweet than sour. Consensus was that FTSE levels would end the year higher. Surely, they argued, the general election was bound to be a factor for uncertainty, but just as surely it would be followed by fewer fluctuations in a market which suddenly would be more certain of the future. It was ever thus...

But the uncertainties with tech stocks, they felt, would be likely to continue as would the growth of interest in biotech.

Support was evident for traditional blue chips such as banking and utilities, but, as Jim Porteous, chairman, was later to observe "relatively unexciting for our adventurous club." Still, they decided to continue their policy of 50 per cent risk and 50 per cent safe stocks.

It has served them well, even though they recognise that stocks can unpredictably rise or fall and anyone who follows their reasoning every month has only themselves to blame if it all goes pear shaped!

Still, they were buoyed by the fact that the value of RICH units again went up. Not by much - from £2.66 to £2.70 - but at least in the opposite direction to the FTSE index.

Never mind the natter - what about the action?

As usual the RICH members were decisive. The Pace had surely gone out of Pace. So they would sell their remaining holding. Jim explains: "The stock had served us well. We made more than 60 per cent on our holdings and with the demise of tech stocks it was time to cut and run.

"All the more so because the day before our dinner its shares went up £1 on what in our view was little or no commercial footing as a result of the volatility of the tech market."

The other decision was to take no decision to buy this time around. What they term as "masterful inactivity." Consolidation of cash until the air cleared was wisest.

Not even an alluring proposal to increase the RICH holding in Jarvis, the York-based facilities management specialists and major Railtrack contractor deflected them from that course.

Jim says: "The proposal was only narrowly defeated, though, because we all have considerable faith in Jarvis which was our purchase of the month in December and has performed well.

That faith was justified with the news last week that Jarvis had been named as the preferred bidder for a £250million contract to maintain the East Coast Main Line.

The Rich members decided to set stop loss levels - triggering sales - at £1.15 on Medisys, £3.90 on Slough Estates, £4.80 on GUS and £1.50 on Morrison.

Footnote: Not long after that dinner full of eastern promise, recently-bought Matalan shares took a dive, plummeting (without stop loss) from £7.26 on January 8 to £3.88 just eight days later.

But the steady-nerved RICH members remain confident that the pile-'em-high, sell-'em-cheap clothing giant, seemingly always crowded at its Clifton Moor outlet, is a good company and ultimately will prove a sound investment.

Jim was surprised that the drop followed an announcement of a 16 per cent year on year increase in sales at Christmas. "This compared with very much poorer results from other retailers. The market obviously expected more!" he says.