In his Hidden Values Alert, value investor Charles Mizrahi discusses three rules for "thriving during a panic". This in-depth, common sense review is must reading for serious investors. (For 10 specific stock ideas that meet value investing criteria, see our other post on a Benjamin Graham-type portfolio.)

"Warren Buffett once said, 'You don't know who's swimming naked until the tide goes out.' In the past year the tide was rapidly going out, and it exposed a lot of naked swimmers.

"The impact of the credit crunch continued to find its way into other asset classes. Correlations that investors held dear, namely that price movements in one global market would behave differently than price movements in another global market, became unglued.

"The past year has seen global markets move in lockstep with each other, providing investors no safe haven.

"Investors couldn't even hang their hats on diversification among different sectors. It is during periods of panic that all markets and sectors correlate in the same direction...down. Investors both institutional and retail acted in a similar manner: they froze.

"They began to sell assets, many times without regard to the underlying value of the asset. In order to raise cash for redemptions, hedge funds sold what they could, not always what they wanted.

"When stock market participants focus on the short term, employ leverage and need to liquefy their holdings, the table is set for the value investor.

"Indeed, it is during times of panic that value investors plant the seeds of future market-beating returns. While most investors are caught like deer in headlights as great companies are offered at bargain prices, value investors act.