What Chief Investment Officer tells his clients he's always wrong? Probably the one that's telling the truth. 

“The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.” Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

Early or Wrong. Patient or Wrong. Hard to tell in short time frames. But as an experienced investor, I have come to learn I AM ALWAYS WRONG. Why? Because there is always some investment doing better than your portfolio right now. ALWAYS.

On any given day, you never have the best portfolio. What Chief Investment Officer tells his clients he is always wrong? Probably the one that is telling the truth. But, I have also come to learn it is not my job to be the most right today but to be good enough over time. Yes, good enough, but not necessarily great. Consistent application of a solid process will achieve our clients’ goals. We spend time with our clients educating them and developing their custom plan so they can increase their level of consciousness regarding the importance of time in their overall investment plan.

Growing up as an athlete that mainly played defense, our mantra was offense wins games and defense wins championships. Others say win by not losing. Or watch the unforced error. Regardless of the sports analogy, there are a few ideals that need to be part of a successful investment strategy:

1. Win by not losing.
2. To finish first, one must first finish.
3. You are always wrong.
4. It is not a beauty contest.
5. In the short run, the market is a voting machine; in the long run it is a weighing machine.[i]
6. If it does not have earnings or generate cash flow, it is speculative.

Notably absent from this list are being right every day and FOMO (fear of missing out). Like a high-scoring offense, great short-term investment results get all the glory, make all the headlines, and capture the imagination of a nation. Good long-term results that achieve our clients’ goals tend to be deemed boring. They certainly will not make the nightly news.

At Members’ Wealth, we continually seek to invest in a manner that significantly improves the likelihood of getting our clients to their goal. For lovers of investing, rather than speculating, now is an extraordinary time, full of diverse opportunities but with plenty of risks to sidestep as well. We cannot wait to go to work each day knowing we will be wrong each day but right for our clients over time in helping them achieve their goals.

Footnotes

[1] Attributed to Benjamin Graham, teacher of Warren Buffet, Grandfather of value investing, “Dean of Wall Street”; He also was co-author of Security Analysis and author of Intelligent Investor. In the 1988 preface to the 5th edition of Graham's book, Security Analysis, his former co-author David Dodd explains how Graham was the original inspiration and advocate for the CFA Institute. Graham originated the idea of a certification process for financial analysts, which was then formally proposed and approved by the New York Society of Security Analysts.

Today, a likeness of Ben Graham — commissioned by Warren Buffett — adorns the headquarters of the CFA Institute in Charlottesville, VA

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Advisory services are offered through CS Planning Corp., an SEC-registered investment advisor.