There's nothing like a bit of pressure to get a competition going and the fact that the Rehab Investment Race is nearing its close did just that.
With just two months to go, September brought a shake up at the top, as a sterling performance from Oppenheim Investment Managers - propelled by Richard Dunn's determination to win - projected the group into the lead.
Former leaders AIB Investment Managers (AIBIM) didn't fare quite so well as a significant decline in one of its long-term buys wiped out gains elsewhere.
For Dunn, September was all about risk, and judging by the 19.4 per cent gain on the month, his strategy paid off. His fund's total return to date now stands at 48.6 per cent, putting him on top of the overall and monthly rankings.
Dunn made a significant number of trades, buying nine stocks, including Aer Lingus, which made its market debut last month, and selling 10. Unfortunately for him, he sold his shares in the former State airline before the bid approach by Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary sent the stock rocketing, and so lost out narrowly on the possibility of yet more gains.
According to Dunn, at this late stage the only way to do things is riskily, and if he's to be believed, we should expect to see more of the same investment strategy from him this month.
September didn't look quite so rosy for Lance Graham, heading up the team at AIBIM. The fund reported a loss of 4.6 per cent on the month, leaving it bottom of the monthly rankings. However, luckily for Graham, its strong performance over the past few months enabled the fund to hang on to second place overall.
The main villain for Graham was bluetooth firm CSR, which after issuing a profit warning lost about 30 per cent of its value. Still, he has held on to it into October, in the hope of a rebound. Graham also made a switch in the mining sector, replacing Xstrata with Anglo American, which he expects to be subject to profit upgrades, as well as currently being a bid candidate.
Meanwhile, Irish Life Investment Managers put in an improved performance in September, with a gain of 2.9 per cent on the month. In the overall rankings, Oppenheim's strong run meant the fund slipped one place to third, with a return to date of 40.4 per cent.
Séamus Magner attributed the majority of the gains to the "tremendous" run shown by shares of Dutch supermarket operator Ahold following its results and the gains seen in Michelin in response to buyout speculation.
The main downside to what was a very busy month for Magner - buying 11 stocks and selling 10 - was Infineon, which didn't fare as well as he expected. He started October holding only Endesa.
Unchanged was the key word in fourth place, where Bank of Ireland Asset Managers (BIAM) not only held on to the same overall position, but also on to its only holding, US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.
The BIAM fund added 3.8 per cent over the month, bringing its return to date to 24.7 per cent.
Fifth place was also steady, with Hibernian Asset Managers' 2.5 per cent loss on the month wiping out some of its earlier gains and resulting in an increase to date of just 0.9 per cent.
Manager Roy Asher made no trades in September and suffered, in particular, as a result of declines in AIM-listed Speymill, a management company for German real estate funds.
Elsewhere Setanta Asset Management continued to languish at the bottom of the table, as James McSweeney's 2 per cent loss on the month failed to provide any momentum. Setanta is the only fund to have recorded a loss-to-date, which stands at 9.7 per cent.
