My journey as an investor, skipping over an initial disengagement post dot com bubble has been one of restraining impulsiveness. In other words moving from short term trading to long term investing. I am now sanguine and trust in the process.
I moved from profiting from trading ranges, through bias towards Asia and small caps (buying narratives), value investing (Russia!), tinkering, big name fund managers, to finally arrive at a fixed asset allocation between MSCI World and an even split of domestic government bonds and currency hedged treasuries all as low cost ETFs. I wish I hadn't had to learn the hard way.
Looking back my real mistake had been wanting to outperform or "seeking an edge". If I had trusted that not losing would be the best outcome I could secure for certain I would be richer today. As it is the market has been kind to me, my terrible mistakes were offset by learning lessons and a lucky pick of a newly launched "Fundsmith" as my last active play and going fully passive as Mr Smith peeked, and I have a comfortable early retirement.
"During the (...). financial crisis, long-term investors kept their cool and sentiment hardly changed".
I'd like to know what that means. Professionals weren't worried during the GFC? Holy cow, if they didn't get worried then, what would it take? A combined asteroid strike and a megatsunami?
Never mind the lols, I indeed find it interesting that the smart money -- the bond traders -- weren't worried about the GFC until rather late in the game. At least, that's what $DJCB the Dow Jones Corporate Bond Index indicated, with no meaningful price deterioration until around July 2008, by which time the SPX had almost lost 20%. On the other hand, hi-yield was quite a bit jumpier, with option spreads broadening about a year earlier.
From my vista, it seems there might be a lot of variance in the "long-term" crowd.
My journey as an investor, skipping over an initial disengagement post dot com bubble has been one of restraining impulsiveness. In other words moving from short term trading to long term investing. I am now sanguine and trust in the process.
I moved from profiting from trading ranges, through bias towards Asia and small caps (buying narratives), value investing (Russia!), tinkering, big name fund managers, to finally arrive at a fixed asset allocation between MSCI World and an even split of domestic government bonds and currency hedged treasuries all as low cost ETFs. I wish I hadn't had to learn the hard way.
Looking back my real mistake had been wanting to outperform or "seeking an edge". If I had trusted that not losing would be the best outcome I could secure for certain I would be richer today. As it is the market has been kind to me, my terrible mistakes were offset by learning lessons and a lucky pick of a newly launched "Fundsmith" as my last active play and going fully passive as Mr Smith peeked, and I have a comfortable early retirement.
"During the (...). financial crisis, long-term investors kept their cool and sentiment hardly changed".
I'd like to know what that means. Professionals weren't worried during the GFC? Holy cow, if they didn't get worried then, what would it take? A combined asteroid strike and a megatsunami?
Never mind the lols, I indeed find it interesting that the smart money -- the bond traders -- weren't worried about the GFC until rather late in the game. At least, that's what $DJCB the Dow Jones Corporate Bond Index indicated, with no meaningful price deterioration until around July 2008, by which time the SPX had almost lost 20%. On the other hand, hi-yield was quite a bit jumpier, with option spreads broadening about a year earlier.
From my vista, it seems there might be a lot of variance in the "long-term" crowd.