I was driving on:
– unfamiliar, busy roads
– at night,
– in rain, fog, and warnings of wind
– with roadworks
– and a windscreen wiper on the “wrong” side…
Now I’m a very cautious driver because I think about risk management most of the time
And regularly ask my Uber drivers to slow down in return for a larger tip ..
Because the stats for slow driving are compelling – for every 10 mph of increased speed, the risk of dying in a crash doubles, in normal conditions!
So that night I drove in the slow lane, ~20km/h below the speed limit, and didn’t care how many cars passed me
All I wanted was to travel safely – better a few minutes late than “dead on time” as the saying goes
Driving slower in dangerous conditions is obvious to me, as I’m sure it is to most,
But then why aren’t we doing that with our investments?
Because we all know that the “conditions” out there are “dangerous”
– extreme concentration
– high valuations
– US bond yields over 5%
– high oil price
– multiple wars
And yet Bloomberg tells me nearly $300bn has flowed into S&P500 / Total market ETFs this year!
So it seems we’re not slowing down, we’re “accelerating into the turns”!
Maybe the approach, “if everyone else is driving at full speed in dangerous conditions, I better join them. Don’t want to risk under-performing ..”
Except that driving fast in dangerous conditions is when accidents happen
And yes, we all want to outperform
But with how much risk?
Now you get relative risk and absolute risk?
If you’re driving as fast as everyone else, you’re taking no relative risk
But if everyone is driving at 150km/hr, you’re sure as heck taking massive absolute risk
Which risk do you want to assume?
At Ranmore we focus on absolute risk because we don’t want to risk crashing, it’s no consolation to us if we all crash together
If you’re wondering how much risk your fund manager is taking relative to the returns you’ve been receiving
Have a look at your fund’s risk tab on Morningstar’s website
They categorise relative Risk and Return in a nice, simple graphic – Morningstar – Ranmore Global Equity Fund
Which compares the level of returns vs the level of risk taken over various time periods
For absolute risk, you can see drawdowns and negative capture ratios
Drive carefully, it’s wet out there
#valueinvesting
#investing
#numbersnotnarrative
#marketingcommunication
Disclosure
This is not advice, do your own work
The content of this marketing material is provided for information purposes only. It does not constitute or form part of any offer to issue or sell, or any solicitation of any offer to subscribe or purchase, shares, units of other interests in investments referred to herein. Past performance does not predict future returns. Capital is at risk.