Written by Lance Roberts, Clarity Financial
During the past week, we made no substantive changes to our portfolios. It seems like a good time to review why we chose to “focus on risk” given the seeming “insanity” in the markets currently.
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As investors, our job is to navigate the waters within which we currently sail, not the seas we think we will sail in later. Higher returns are generated from the management of “risks” rather than the attempt to create returns by chasing markets. That philosophy got well defined by Robert Rubin, former Secretary of the Treasury when he said;
“As I think back over the years, I have been guided by four principles for decision making. First, the only certainty is that there is no certainty. Second, every decision, as a consequence, is a matter of weighing probabilities. Third, despite uncertainty, we must decide and we must act. And lastly, we need to judge decisions not only on the results, but on how they were made.
Most people are in denial about uncertainty. They assume they’re lucky, and that the unpredictable can be reliably forecast. This keeps business brisk for palm readers, psychics, and stockbrokers, but it’s a terrible way to deal with uncertainty. If there are no absolutes, then all decisions become matters of judging the probability of different outcomes, and the costs and benefits of each. Then, on that basis, you can make a good decision.”
A Simple Philosophy
It should be evident that an honest assessment of uncertainty leads to better decisions, but the benefits of Rubin’s approach, and mine, goes beyond that. For starters, although it may seem contradictory, embracing uncertainty reduces risk while denial increases it. Another benefit of acknowledged uncertainty is it keeps you honest.
“A healthy respect for uncertainty and focus on probability drives you never to be satisfied with your conclusions. It keeps you moving forward to seek out more information, to question conventional thinking and to continually refine your judgments and understanding that difference between certainty and likelihood can make all the difference.”
We must recognize and be responsive to changes in underlying market dynamics if they change for the worse and be aware of the inherent risks in portfolio allocation models. The reality is that we can’t control outcomes. The most we can do is influence the probability of specific outcomes, which is why the day-to-day management of risks and investing based on probabilities rather than possibilities is essential to capital preservation and investment success.
It is just something to consider.
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