Picking stocks by watching debt paydowns

SANDY Rufenacht is a bond guy who has figured out a unique way to pick stocks.

The co-manager of the Aquila Three Peaks Opportunity Growth Fund says his high-yield-bond research leads him to companies whose stocks are primed to rise. "We find these ideas in advance of the equity market," he says.

Mr Rufenacht's approach is based on something he calls "return on debt paydown", Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its October issue.