We have emphasized the importance of a long term view of investing for as long as we have been in the professional investment business. Recently, our CIO, Gerry Frigon, was quoted in Rocket HQ regarding the importance of "staying the course" during difficult times like we have just experienced in the last few months with the COVID-19 panic.
Frigon was quoted in March 2020 as saying:
"Don't panic and liquidate long-term investments," Frigon says. "This kind of thinking is dangerous, because when the market turns it happens so rapidly, it is shocking. The more the market recovers, the more difficult it becomes emotionally for those who got out to buy back in, often resulting in tremendous losses for those who panic-sold near the lows."
We have stated such things many times in the past, most notably in this post from March 2, 2009, in which we all but begged investors not to "get off the train" during the market rout that was occurring in the wake of the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Remarkably, barely a week later, the bottom was hit on March 9, 2009 and the market exploded forward for the next decade.
The bull market born on March 9, 2009 ended in March 2020 with a massive panic sell-off, exacerbated by the crisis industry's over-hyping and the government's overreaction to the COVID-19 virus.
Since our CIO uttered those words in March 2020, the market averages climbed their way back to almost break even by June 30, 2020, finishing the first half of 2020 down a few percentage points, on average. And our own Core Growth Strategy finished the first half up well over 20% YTD!
How many more times will this have to happen before the average investor realizes the folly of trying to guess what the market is going to do?
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