How do farmers do it? It takes strong will and fierce dedication to give yourself a chance of being successful. Well….as investors we can relate to some degree as we have chosen a profession based on markets that have often been described as a “random walk”. That is precisely why we appreciated this list that was sent to us recently.
The true story of Billy Beane sticking his neck out to manage the Oakland A’s in a way never seen before is inspiring and thought provoking. There are a few Moneyball concepts that we are leaning on today to position ourselves in this challenging environment.
There are a lot of parallels between his humbling experience and the market experience so far in 2022. At the time of writing this blog we are almost three quarters through 2022 and it has proven to be a difficult year. That said, we are still within the boundaries of what we would put in the category of “normal"...
Successful parenting involves subscribing to a philosophy and sticking with it. For example, if the goal is limiting screen time to play video games or bounce around on social media, you have to stick with those limits. There will be countless opportunities to stray from the goal; perhaps as a parent you are burnt out and just need the quiet time, perhaps their friends are doing it and it is “normal”. Sticking to it means not taking the easy route in the short term because you can see the long-term benefit even if your kids (or pets!) temporarily don’t like you very much.
Over the weekend, Western nations agreed on new sanctions to further isolate Russia, by seeking to prevent its central bank from using foreign reserves to blunt sanctions and excluding some Russian lenders from the SWIFT messaging system that underpins trillions of dollars’ worth of transactions.
The investment landscape and our lives during the past couple of years have looked a bit like that of a road trip, complete with detours and bumps along the way. Despite these short-term setbacks, we would inevitably reach our destination.