I came across this amazing article and just had to share it with you.  It is a memo written by famous and incredibly successful value investor Howard Marks.  In the memo he articulates how little short-term market fluctuations really mean.  This is why I’ve been continuously stressing the fundamentals which are incredibly sound in our investments.  All of the news is focusing on the negatives and it becomes an obsession, pushing people to make rash and ill-advised decisions.  That is the worst thing one can possibly do.  The secret to investing is buying securities when the consensus is negative and selling them when the prices near their intrinsic value.  I’ve had many clients say that they have called a major drop and gotten out before, but most of those people never got back in so missed the subsequent gains.  This happens all of the time and there are also a lot of exaggerators out there.  Don’t let the stock market dictate your mood and don’t dwell on short-term fluctuations.  In times like this, everybody is down unless you are short, and shorts have lost money the last 7 years.  As long as the businesses perform, so will your portfolio because the prices are as attractive as they have been in many years.  I’ll let the article speak for itself but it is highly recommended reading.  Thank you very much!

 

Howard Marks: What Does the Market Know?

 

Sincerely,

Tim Travis
CEO/CIO