Sometimes it’s best to pay no attention

With more than 30 years’ experience behind him, Richard Bernstein has had an illustrious Wall Street career. He’s been voted to Instititutional Investor Magazine’s annual “All-America Research Team” 18 times, including ten as the top-ranked analyst in his category.

In his book, “Navigate the Noise: Investing in the New Age of Media and Hype” he makes

When it comes to investing, patience is definitely a virtue

I had a very interesting conversation with a client recently.  During the course of our discussion, he mentioned to me that he thought that I was in one of the toughest businesses one could be in.

When I asked what he meant, he explained it was because it was so difficult for so many investors to wait out the bad times, to be patient, to overcome that desire we all have to get rich quick; and that it must be challenging for me, especially in times like these, to convince investors that, in the long run, it will be worth the wait; even if the wait seems endless.

It was a real coincidence that he chose that particular day to have that particular

Good advice from a master

Bob Farrell was a legend at Merrill Lynch & Co. for several decades.  He retired as Chief Market Analyst at the end of 1992, but he will always be considered one of the greats.  I came across his “10 Rules for Investing” the other day and think they are well worth re-visiting, particularly because of the trying markets and unstable times we find ourselves in:

1. Markets tend to return to the mean over time
2. Excesses in one direction will lead to an excess in the opposite direction
3. There are no new eras — excesses are never permanent
4. Exponential rapidly rising or falling markets usually go further than you think, but they do not correct by going sideways
5. The public buys the most at the top and the least at the bottom
6. Fear and greed are stronger than long-term resolve
7. Markets are strongest when they are broad and weakest when they narrow to a handful of blue-chip names
8. Bear markets have three stages — sharp down, reflexive rebound and a drawn-out fundamental downtrend
9. When all the experts and forecasts agree — something else is going to happen
10. Bull markets are more fun than bear markets