Topic: How To Invest

What is Pat’s commentary for the week of May 8, 2018

Article Excerpt

Here’s the text of the most-recent letter I sent to our Portfolio Management clients in late April: “To succeed as an investor, you need to focus on basic principles, and downplay or ignore trivia. Basic principles provide the fuel for market booms that go on for many years, if not decades. If you focus on important matters that have a long-term impact on the market, it will help you improve your long-term investment results. Instead, many investors and commentators spend their time trying to figure out the impact of passing matters—the sideshows, rather than the main event. There’s a large random element in these matters. What’s more, exaggerated media coverage can draw attention to them that is out of proportion to any impact they are likely to have. In today’s hypercompetitive media market, commentators and publishers aim for shock value rather than balance. They start by talking about the worst that can happen. From there they go on to dwell on the secondary…