The following article was posted by email to our clients at the height of the Global Financial Crisis: better known as ‘the GFC’. It was posted by way of investor support at that highly volatile time (both financially and emotionally), seeking to encourage clients to hold true to the strategy that they had set at the time of engaging us – and assuring them that indeed there was to be a light at the end of the tunnel.
Our investor support 2008 message of encouragement was –
Investor support 2008
There is light at the end of the tunnel! The length of the tunnel may vary; and the light at the distant end may only be a flicker at first – but there is ALWAYS light at its end! Whenever there is any level of market correction we are surrounded by doomsayers and headline seekers: it is important to stay mindful that market volatility is not unusual as the cycle of trading progresses – and that the headlines are designed to sell newspapers, television programs and magazines. What is important to remember is what your investment goals are – and what strategy you have had mapped out for their attainment.
We at ContinuumFP, remain optimistic about the long-term prospects for the markets in investment assets generally (and in this article seek to provide investor support for those anguishing about the current situation) – and work with our advised clients to understand that what is happening in the markets from time to time; and what impact those events are likely to have on their strategy, both in the short-term and in the longer-term. We remain even more optimistic that clients who develop a reasoned strategic investment plan, based on credible information, will succeed given adequate time.
Many of our readers have experienced extreme market events during their working lives – either on the share-markets or in property dealings. Others will be able to talk to older family members and friends who have been through such events. The good news is that there is ALWAYS a rebound – and the follow-on position usually trends upwards.
The current experience is more painful for those people who have only entered the market since mid-2005, because those invested prior to that are (in the main, absent any unusual event or withdrawal in the interim) still holding on to marginal gains in their investment portfolio value.
This event is more noticeable by the community generally because more of us are involved in the markets through our superannuation accounts.
This article was originally posted in September 2008, at the height of the GFC: it has been updated as at November 2013.
