Morgan Housel of The Motley Fool writes a good piece on how difficult it can be buy and hold the very best performing stocks over time. As Housel points out, the best performing individual stock from 1995-2015 was Monster Beverage — up 105,000% over that 20 year period. That return would have turned $10,000 into a cool $10 million. But, as Housel points out, Monster has been an incredibly volatile stock, so volatile that most investors… Read More
Writing on the CFA Institute’s Enterprising Investor blog last month, founder and CEO at SVM Asset Management Colin McLean says “volatile markets raise[] the noise level” in talk about investing, and “the challenge for investors is to find the true signals.” He warns against listening to “perma-bears” and “false comfort” alike, pointing to lessons from behavioral finance. McLean says history bears out the importance of “cutting through the noise of volatile markets,” stating that “before… Read More
A recent MarketWatch article observes, “when the stock market is [as] nerve-wracking as it has been, investors need to make sure that any decisions they make are part of the big plan instead of the result of panic.” It says that “selling is an option,” but an investor should ask the following questions before doing so: “Does a sale protect my nest egg, or my ego?” – If one sells to protect gains or… Read More