Sell in May and go away is the old adage and some say it should be especially heeded at election time.

But while members of Ridings investment Club Holdings did not take the advice in its entirety on the selling bit, they went away all right.

The group decided to hang on until next month when all the election dust had settled before making investment decisions.

It was hardly worth the effort in a market which seems to have gone poll crazy.

What other explanation can there be for the May 14 plummet in the FTSE index by 200 points, which by morning had completely recovered?

No, you cannot apply reason to investment decisions when they are subject to forces so unreasonable.

Besides, only three members - mostly past and present executives of Nestl Rowntree - could have made it to a meeting anyway because of other commitments.

They hardly needed to contact one another by phone or e-mail to agree to offload just one of their holdings. That was Slough Estates, whose sale was automatically triggered when it slipped below the £3.97 stop loss limit they set last month. So instead they resolved to horde their membership levy until June, perhaps for some blockbuster buying.

The pause has given Jim Porteous, chairman, a chance to make his own party political broadcast on behalf of RICH living.

Jim, also a former Nestl man, but now managing director of Notions marketing consultancy, said: "If you had invested £1,000 with Ridings Investment Club in May 1994, it would now be worth £2,800. And the same £1,000 invested in companies which form the FT index would have produced £1,800 in the same time. So the club has been a useful repository for our money."