With the end almost in sight - only one more month to go in the Rehab Great Investment Race - things are certainly hotting up.
The penultimate month brought yet another shake-up at the top, though the strongest performer in October - Hibernian Investment Managers - failed to advance from fifth place in the overall rankings.
The winner in overall terms as things stood at the end of October was Irish Life Investment Managers (ILIM) which, under the reins of Seamus Magner, gained 5 per cent on the month, bringing the total return to 47.4 per cent.
For Magner, October was a very busy month, which saw him buy 14 stocks and sell 13, a strategy he says was part of a risk reduction policy of getting out of a stock quickly when things are not going well rather than a reaction to the impending conclusion of the the race. The main contributors to his monthly gain were American Airlines, which rallied on the back of the decline in the oil price, and Corus, which benefited from takeover speculation.
He also reaped the benefits of an upgrade at Daimler Chrysler.
Elsewhere Oppenheim Investment Managers slipped to second place in the overall rankings. The group continued to reap the benefits of the very strong performance shown in September. During October the fund lost 3.2 per cent, putting it in fourth place in the monthly ratings and bringing the return to date back to 43.8 per cent.
Manager Richard Dunne continued the active trading seen in September, buying 11 stocks and selling 13. His main villain was Sportingbet, which along with its internet gaming rivals had a bad time at the start of October. Still, Dunne said that positive punts on companies including Vistaprint, an internet-based stationary supplier, had helped offset the decline.
Former leaders AIB Investment Managers put in another poor performance in October, losing 6.8 per cent on the month, and falling to third place in the overall rankings. The fund, headed by Lance Graham, has the strong performance it showed at the start of the race to thank for the 37 per cent return to date.
Graham's main downfall last month came in the form of Wolfson Microelectronic, a digital chip maker that the fund has held from the start of the competition. Despite the stock falling on the back of a profit warning, Graham said he was happy to have held it this long. He sold it in October along with Gamestop, the largest video games retailer in the US, whose gains alleviated some of Wolfson's losses.
Unchanged was again the key word for fourth place Bank of Ireland Asset Managers (BIAM), which as well as continuing to hold on to the same individual stock it has held throughout the competition, US pharmaceutical group Pfizer, also held steady in the same overall position. On a monthly basis, the 6.7 per cent loss dragged the group down to fifth place.
Hibernian Investment Managers put in a stellar performance on the month, with a 7.2 per cent gain leaving it well ahead in the rankings. However, on an overall basis, the fund, managed by Roy Asher, lagged behind in fifth place, up 8.1 per cent.
During the month, Asher benefited in particular from significant gains at Speymill, a management company for German real estate funds.
Setanta Asset Management continued to languish at the bottom, as James McSweeney's 1.7 per cent gain failed to offset the declines experienced in prior months. On a monthly basis, the group ranked third.
