I was reading a post from a local Singaporean investing message board. For the sake of privacy, I am just going to summarize its contents. The gist of it was that the author’s portfolio was down > 40%, and he was feeling extremely dejected and depressed worrying that all his money would be lost.

Know what your investing in

I have a lot of sympathy for the investor in question as no one likes to see their portfolio plunge in value dramatically, especially if that is money you need in the immediate future. You read about it time and time again every time there is a market downturn, or certain “dubious investments” blow-up (I am looking at you cryptocurrencies!). Its important to always know what you’re investing in, and the variability of returns you can expect year to year. For example, stocks are volatile… and always have been! There ......