What Long-Term Investors Actually Get Paid For

Mike Williams | 3rd June 2019
Categories
Letter from America

Say good-bye to a very ugly month, and nothing but cloudy, ugly, scary looking things just ahead.

And I’m fresh out of TUMS.

Ok, I’m kidding. 

But know this equally ugly truth - long-term investors get paid for only a few things:

  • Patience
  • Discipline
  • The ability to control emotional reactions
  • Moving less, and
  • Being able to see through the storms along the way.

No Rose-Coloured Glasses

Yes, I’ve been accused of wearing them; saying that no matter what happens we’re bullish. 

Those who may feel that way may not have been following these notes during late 1999 and into late 2002 when instead of "pray for a correction" being our mantra - readers saw this:

"When it really is time to buy tech stocks again - you won't want to have anything to do with them - ever again."

We were also the only voice in print in the summer of 1998 who (in BARRON's) said: "Our data suggest stocks are in trouble - and at severe risk for a drop..." 

Heck, we even suggested owning some gold might be a good thing (when it was $248 an ounce). 

I was on air, maybe 70 times, leading into the housing crisis with only one theme to the commentators at the time:

"Guys if you think real estate grows to the sky, you're missing the point.  Just as we saw in the tech bubble years ago - very few industries work the way housing is being priced and moved today."

Why do I point all this out?

Two reasons:

  1. We are not always positive, and
  2. These are not those times.

One other thing; even when we’re not positive in the medium-term, it’s not the end of the world. 

(Now, back to those missing TUMS.

I get it, folks. Sometimes the swell of mind-bending media crap, watching markets move down a few hundred points (and then a few hundred more), only to bounce for a bit, give you a "mental rest" and then go down again over the latest China, Iran, Mexico, Tariff War(s), Bond Yield, Crude Oil, Russia, Mueller, Commodity, Currency, Brexit, Emerging Markets Crisis, can drive you to drink.

Speaking of which, the bourbon also appears to have gone missing…

All of this stuff has been the types of back-drop warning themes as we enter the summer since I started writing these articles.

Every summer births reasons for a stock market swoon.

And yet, all those swoons before have happened at far lower levels than where we stand now.

Remember that for the summer ahead.

My Hunch?

Expect another couple of weeks of angst, chop, red ink movements, along with plenty of new headlines to scare you into the bomb shelter.

Watch the short video below about "corrections" when you get a few minutes - your password is Faith77.

While you watch, note we are 3,000 points higher than the last panic in Q4 ending on Christmas Eve morning: