Quarterly Thoughts – Q3 2008

Markets continue to be difficult. However, panic can damage long-term profit. As Burton G. Malkiel, professor of economics at Princeton University wrote recently in The Wall Street Journal, “Just because stock markets have panicked, investors should not. A century of investing experience, as well as insights from the field of behavioral finance, suggests that investors who bailout of equities during times like these are almost always making the wrong decision.” We also quote John Bogle regarding inability of even the most experienced investors to guess the market. Also, when the average investor is scared, seasoned professional investors view the down markets as an unusually good opportunity for rebalancing and tax loss harvesting… while stocks are essentially “on sale” at bargain prices. If you are making regular contributions to your retirement accounts, you too are buying the world on sale and will be rewarded with bigger gains as the market eventually recovers.