Volatility – friend or foe?

Neil Jankelowitz: Senior Financial Advisor

Do you remember being a child and visiting the funfair? You would stand in the queue for two hours just to ride the rollercoaster…and loved every minute of it!

But the economic rollercoaster we have all been riding over the past 12 months has not been as joyful. It reminds me of the adage, “If you want a rainbow, you’ve got to put up with the rain.”

While most people out there see these volatile times as being a little scary, we all but embrace them. Because the core to our philosophy at Octagon Financial is diversification, it helps us hold our heads high above the rising waters. Yes, we are all trying to catch as much upside as is possible, but even more important right now is downside protection.

All signs seem to suggest that we can expect this level of volatility to continue for the foreseeable future. So, what should we do?

The last thing we need is panic. We need to make sure we remove ourselves from too much noise, such as your hairdresser (no disrespect to hairdressers) telling you to buy or sell this stock or that stock. We need to ensure that we have a process in place and that we stick to it through the tough times as we would during the easy times.

At Octagon, we pride ourselves on the fact that we have such a process in place and that we do not deviate from this when times are seemingly dictating us to do so.

So as we wind down towards the end of what has been a difficult year for investments, let us remind ourselves that we have previously been through what we are currently going through, and that times such as these will in fact happen again.

As we depart for our holidays, we can be sure that as we know the sun will set at the end of every day and the waves in the sea will continue to reach the shores that we at Octagon will continue doing what we do.

Our passion for both investing and for our clients allows us to keep a clear mind and stick to our process year after year.

“No one’s ever achieved financial fitness with a January resolution that was abandoned in February” Suze Orman