The way ahead

Naturally, people gets interested in investment when the stock market plunge hits the news on TV and newspapers. It's simply logical to deduce that when the mainstream media says the market has fallen by this much, it also means this is a good time to invest. In my opinion, this might be true. The best time to start from zero is always now. And if one has already started, consider progressively putting more spare cash to work.

The next question for investment newbies is what to buy? I hope to write about this in future.

However, for investors already knee deep or appropriately neck deep in the markets, this question is probably no longer relevant. He would already own a carefully constructed portfolio, whose formation is likely on the basis of the investor's view of having the best growth, income, value or undertaking of the most comfortable risk level he can stomach. Recently, I've read that for an investor who spends such great effort to curate the list of stocks/ETFs he owns now, he will spend doubly more to defend his investment decisions when needed to. It's quite hard to change how one invests.

Perhaps, a great portfolio value reset event like what we are facing now is a turning point to evaluate the way we buy, sell or sit pat. In deep losses, we can better reflect deeply. What could I have done? What can I do to change things for the better. Without a push factor like an unbearable capital loss, the inertial for any overhaul of our investment methodology could be simply too big. I too, suffer from the same resistance to change.

For seasoned investors, does your investment vehicle have a solid navigation plan to prepare for possibly treacherous waters ahead? Will you stay the course, update your forward trajectory or are you charting a new way ahead?

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