Keeping your emotions in check is a key trait of successful investors.
Every market contains a strong embedded rate of return. This return is directly related to the amount of risk in that market. In the long run, both the risk and return of each market remain remarkably stable in real terms. So, you can count on obtaining the appropriate level of risk in each market by exercising a disciplined buy and hold strategy. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that all markets go through cycles in the short run. This volatility is the price we pay for returns above T-Bill rates. The duration and amplitude of these swings is one very good measure of risk. Market cycles are impossible to predict. Their price movements are essentially random. But, we know that markets will neither continue up indefinitely, nor fall to zero. In the past they have always “reverted to the mean.”
Capitalism would not work if it were not so. Try to imagine a world in which investors could buy only assets that had gone up with assurances of continued profits. Or, that by avoiding asset classes that were depressed, they could prevent any future losses. All capital would quickly flow to the current successful asset classes, and the rest might as well close up shop because they would never attract any capital. The world economy would collapse, and we would all be back grubbing for bugs to eat.
In the real world, investors that bought only appreciating assets would quickly find them “reverting to the mean”. Investors would find themselves continuously buying high and selling low.
Investors understand this on one level, but on another level their emotions can short-circuit their common sense. If investors allow their emotions to take them on a roller coaster ride, they can quickly become their own worst enemy.
In a multi-asset class portfolio, something is always going to be under-performing. Under-performance quickly generates remorse and regret. These emotions in turn trigger an almost irresistible impulse to buy and sell at exactly the wrong moment. Just when we, and everyone around us, are tempted to give up in disgust, may be the point of maximum opportunity. Likewise, when the market has gone up for several periods in a row and we are all giddy, we may be at the point of maximum risk.