Investors’ emotions were sorely tried in the summer of 2015 by a stock market correction sparked by Chinese economic growth, tumbling commodity prices and the prospect of higher interest rates in the U.S. It’s important for investors to stay informed of economic and corporate developments, but John Carswell, the president of Canso Investment Counsel, told Financial Pipeline co-editor Malcolm Morrison that it’s too easy for investors to take in too much unhelpful information during a market downturn.
JC: And what do I say to people? Stop watching CNN. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, crisis in Slovenia, will Slovenia destroy the Euro? Who cares? Crisis in Greece. Crisis in Russia. You continually have the financial press, soaring between reinforcing the optimism and the balloon rising and reinforcing the pessimism. So who do they have when they are negative? Dr. Doom, Nouriel Roubini, the world is coming to an end. Who do they have when things are positive? People who talk about how they’ll only go higher. The truth of the matter is if you look at your investments and if you have sound reasonable investments, you do fine. Now if someone suddenly said to you, your house is down 10 per cent, and this is Warren Buffet’s imagery. If someone walked up to you every day and told you what your house is worth, you’d either feel better or bad, but nobody buys and sells their house on a moment’s notice because you’re living there.
