A Tale of Two Dows (or why we invest globally)

In the first half of this year, running a globally-allocated portfolio looked and felt humiliating in the shadow of a US-only, S&P or Nasdaq focused racehorse. At one point, the trouncing was so pronounced that I documented a few of the comments I’d been hearing from my colleagues (see: Anecdotally… from July 25th).

But the wheel has since begun to turn, as it always does eventually, and many international indices have begun to crush the US benchmarks. For Business Insider’s latest Most Important Charts On Earth compilation, I sent Matt Boesler the below:

It can be easy to lose your mind when one particular sector, asset class or geographic region is just trending and trending and leaving everything else in the dust. It makes you hate yourself because your responsibly diversified portfolio just can’t keep up.

History shows that it is best to grit your teeth through these phases rather than load the boat on whatever’s just gone up so you can make yourself feel better.

But not everyone can do it. It’s just as hard for pros as it is for amateurs – maybe even harder! Especially if clients are obsessing over what they’re missing and goading you into getting more heavily involved in whatever’s stampeding higher.

Source:

The Most Important Charts on Earth, Q4 2013 (Business Insider)

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Anecdotally…  (TRB)