The Rear View Mirror

How we, as long-term investors, approach and work through the next 6 months will define our health and wealth for decades to come.

And in order to see the greater bounty ahead we need to collectively recognise there are certain market and economic storms we’ll have to weather. 

I wish it were different, but it’s not.

There are no detours and you can’t magically trade out of them. 

The fear can be overwhelming, driven by the resounding beat of the media headlines. 

So as those voices try to keep you from that greater bounty ahead keep this in mind:

What the above chart tells us is that we spend most of the time in bull market territory, where stocks are on the rise and the economy is sound, while bear markets represent the slim minority. 

And a century’s worth of data suggests those blue mountains of growth and opportunity are birthed from those red valleys of setbacks. 

You can fight it, or you can embrace it.

The speed with which the system has reacted to this window of time is unheard of. 

Overlooking that fact with knee-jerk reactions in a fog of panic, and not seeing the recovery that will follow, will be revealed as a significant error once the shutdown is squarely in our rear-view mirror.