If you blinked, you missed it!

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You could be arguing with your spouse that you worked all your damn life. At 60, you are retired but you still have bills to pay and have seen your interest income plunge as a result of low interest rates. With lifestyle inflation going much higher, you want to make more money to spice up your boring financial life before you kick the bucket.

You are worried about another stock market crash affecting your investments. You came across some financial seminars promising high returns. The whole idea is that suckers do not have to understand anything about the markets to make good money. You are told that you can trade like a legendary trader by attending a 3-day course on technical analysis.

You are worried about the cold calls from peddlers of financial scams as well as e-mails which go into the spam list. You contacted your financial planner who does not know much about markets. Then you turned to all the free information on the internet but could not understand all the different views promoted by the talking heads or experts who are always seen talking their book. Sorry that your financial life is going to be ruined. The good news is you can seek help and there is no need to panic. However, there are no magic pills and you need to temper your greed.

In my work for clients, I adopt a model that built in more flexibility in the creation of optimal portfolio mix. Sorry if this scares the bloody hell out of you. There are no textbook rules in my work. I do not compare with what my neighbor with a PhD in finance is doing. I would change allocation with macro conditions. Small is beautiful. I love to work with smaller and less arrogant fund managers capable of adapting to changing economic and market conditions.

Some of the operators in our show business have restraints on the kind of stuff they could do for their clients and they tend to favor traditional or long-only approaches. Few are highly skilled in the use of alternatives. Alternatives have always been part of my diversified strategies in all market conditions.

Yeah, all the managers on my radar screen have performed very well in 2017. The final numbers will be out soon.

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