文档介绍：When times get tough, people with an abundance of disposable e are inclined to keep disposing of it while the rest of us are forced to keep our thinner wallets in our pockets. With that in mind, Tobias Levkovich, Citigroup's chief United States equity strategist, has created the Living Large Index, comprising stocks of businesses that cater to affluent consumers. Profits and share prices of luxury-goods makers, higher-end retailers and travel and panies should hold up even if businesses serving them suffer from difficult economic conditions, he said.
The index is a new creation, but back-testing shows that building a portfolio from ponent stocks would have been a far more lucrative long-term strategy than mimicking the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index. A $100 investment in Living Large at the end of 1995 would have grown to $1,013 by Oct. 31, compared with $252 for the S.& P. No wonder the logic behind the index wins high marks from investment advisers. ''It certainly makes sense conceptually,'' said Charles L. Norton, manager of the Vice fund, which invests panies like o makers, gambling emporiums and purveyors of alcohol. ''Usually in a recession, people at the lower end of the food chain are hurt most and so those catering to the luxury end tend to be relatively insulated.'' Mr. Norton holds one index constituent, Wynn, the owner of casinos, including one in Macao that has