Warren Buffett is the world’s third richest man, worth over $80 billion, and he made it all from investing. His advice on how to handle stock market volatility is worth listening to.
During times of volatility, Buffett says it’s best to stay calm and stick to the basics, meaning buy-and-hold for the long term.
In his 2017 Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter, he quoted a classic poem by Rudyard Kipling titled “If”. His advice to nervous investors enduring market downturns ….
If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs …
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting …
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim …
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you …
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it.
There is a very human tendency to do something, anything, as you see previous gains reduced and positive returns turn negative. That’s when people who panic make mistakes.
Market downturns are inevitable, Buffett pointed out, using his own company as an example:
“Berkshire, itself, provides some vivid examples of how price randomness in the short term can obscure long-term growth in value. For the last 53 years, the company has built value by reinvesting its earnings and letting compound interest work its magic. Year by year, we have moved forward. Yet Berkshire shares have suffered four truly major dips.“
He went on to cite each of the steep share-price drops, including the most recent one from September 2008 to March 2009, when Berkshire shares plummeted 50.7 percent.
Major declines have happened before and are going to happen again, he says: “No one can tell you when these will happen. The light can at any time go from green to red without pausing at yellow.“
Rather than watch the market closely and panic, keep a level head. Market downturns “offer extraordinary opportunities to those who are not handicapped by debt,” he says, which brings up another important investing lesson: Never borrow money to buy stocks.
There are several reasons people panic and “lose their heads” when they see the value of their investments decline. Here are three of the most common.
They don’t have a cash cushion. It is imperative that everyone needs to have a certain amount of safe money that can be used to pay the bills for at least 6 months without touching their investment portfolio.
Fear of “losing it all.” This is usually an irrational response to a temporary decline in the stock market. Markets don’t go to zero. The only way anyone can lose their entire investment is if they own a single stock and the company goes bankrupt.
This is, of course, the reason that professional investors create properly diversified portfolios that are not concentrated in the stock of a single company or a single industry.
Have you ever heard of anchoring bias? It’s a common human tendency to rely on one piece of information or data when making decisions. Many amateur investors fixate on the maximum value their portfolios reach and view any decline from that a “loss.” This even affects people who do not depend on their investments for income or their personal needs.
Just like you wouldn’t fly a plane yourself when you want to travel somewhere, you want to work with someone who has spent years in their profession and is confident at the controls. Rather than panic or focus in on a small amount of information, an experienced advisor will help you navigate the ups and downs of investing with their wealth of experience.
Investors tend to see short-term volatility as the enemy. It can lead many investors to move money out of the market and “sit on the sidelines” until things “calm down.” Even if this approach appears to solve one problem, it creates several others.
In 2009, during the last great market panic, the S&P 500 stock index declined 28% early in the year but rebounded enough to return 23% for the full year.
Like Warren Buffett, we believe that the wise course of action is to have a plan and follow it during both good and bad times. This reduces the chances that emotion takes over and the desire to “do something” that leads to mistakes.
If you don’t have a plan, recognizing that your emotions can lead you astray, finding an experienced financial advisor, a fiduciary who can create a plan and a properly diversified portfolio can be a big step toward taking Warren Buffett’s advice.
Arie J. Korving, a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional, has been delivering customized wealth management solutions to his clients for more than three decades. Prior to co-founding Korving & Company, he was First Vice President with UBS Wealth Management and held management positions with General Electric.
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