Jeremy Grantham: “Keep telling yourself… you’re a long-term investor”

| 10 October 2008 13:00

Jeremy Grantham has seen this crash coming for quite some time. Nevertheless, he is not selling everything and waiting out the market in Kruggerrands and cash. has kept a good long-term perspective about investing that bears repeating here.

Keep telling yourself every night that you’re a long-term investor and don’t look at daily stock prices. And it’s not too late to shift some of your money to high-quality blue chips. Emerging markets are probably no longer too expensive either. If you had 80% of your stockholdings in blue chips and 20% in emerging markets, you’d have a pretty reasonable portfolio to ride out the bad times.
-Jeremy Grantham, CNN Money

The crux of his comments are that good long-term investors do not just passively accept what the market dishes out. They actively manage their investments for long-term performance. One need not panic and sell everything. A better strategy would be to keep enough cash to cherry pick those investments that cheap in order to profit over the long-term.

avatar About Edward Harrison

Edward Harrison is the founder of Credit Writedowns and a former career diplomat, investment banker and technology executive with over twenty years of business experience. He is also a regular economic and financial commentator on BBC World News, CNBC Television, Business News Network, CBC, Fox Television and RT Television. He speaks six languages, a skill he uses to provide a more global perspective. Edward holds an MBA in Finance from Columbia University and a BA in Economics from Dartmouth College.

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3 Comments

  1. avatar pej says:
    10 October 2008 at 16:23

    speacking of gold, I am sharing some thoughts and info here: gold vs gold – pt2. What would be your take on this?

  2. avatar Edward Harrison says:
    11 October 2008 at 13:50

    I agree with your comments. Those are moves that could and should wipe out a few hedge funds. I can’t believe we haven’t heard more on this already.

    I’m sure you know that the U.S. mint is running ashort of gold coins because everybody wants them. What does that tell you?

  3. avatar pej says:
    12 October 2008 at 14:12

    It shows the disconnect between paper gold and the real thing. And it also shows that retail investors are protecting themselves (also are panicing). I guess it’s going to be harder and harder to find gold, which is the only save haven remaining, while ALL the other assets are in bubble.