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“The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.” — William James, American philosopher & psychologist (1842 – 1910).
Markets spend about two thirds of the time as bulls and one third as bears.
There is plenty of investment moxie to be learned from analyzing market volatility.
Preservation and growth of personal wealth works best on logic, not on emotion.
The good news is that becoming a better investor is not complicated.
Each pearl of wisdom presented helps guide the portfolio.
Together, they make a very powerful team.
Here is my tally of classic investing wisdom:
- The mythical highest return for the least risk is still just a myth.
- Patience is a wonderful virtue as stocks deliver results in the long run.
- Broad diversification is essential medicine to control the impact of risks.
- The appeal of quick financial payoffs causes investors to focus on the wrong issues.
- Dwelling on past investment mistakes creates even more mistakes.
- Sell into confidence, buy into fear.
- Bonds let you sleep at night, but at a price.
- Occasional rebalancing maintains a more stable exposure to risk.
- All good trends come to an end, so it’s consistency of returns that really counts.
- Never make investment decisions based only on tax implications.
The secret to managing wealth is not that much of a secret.
It’s really a large dose of managing the risks!
Make logical and rational decisions with the facts at hand.
Expect risk management to test and retest all investor resolve.
This is where the investing game is won or lost.
Adrian Mastracci, MBA, is portfolio manager for Vancouver-based Lycos Asset Management, specializing in designing and stewarding retirement portfolios.
