A bend in the road

Over the last 25 years that I have been in asset management, one truth has never changed: Markets are full of surprises. You think they’ll rise, they fall. You fear they’ll crash; they rally. Many investors try to ‘figure it out’, hoping for some formula or certainty. But the truth is that markets are not machines with defined inputs and outputs. They are living ecosystems, influenced not just by earnings and interest rates but by human behaviour – full of emotion, psychology and reactions to the unknown. When I say, “a bend in the road is not the end of the road,” I don’t say it for dramatic effect. I say it because it is a deeply profound way to look at investing. A bend doesn’t signal the journey’s over; it signals a change in direction, a moment to stay alert and not panic. It’s during these moments of uncertainty that true resilience and adaptability are tested and often rewarded. Bends are features, not flaws Let’s be honest: If there were no bends, there would be no roads. A road that’s perfectly straight and unchanging doesn’t exist, and if it did, we would give up on such a journey out of sheer boredom or the feeling of being directionless and getting nowhere at the end of what seem