What might investors learn from THAT photo?

Whatever you feel about Trump, whatever your stand, grant Trump one of the great gangsta moves of American political history.

But I don't want to discuss Trump, per se, nor how close the United States came to a disaster.

I want to discuss the photographer behind the image, Evan Vucci, & what investors can learn from him.

It was his past experiences that had prepared him for this moment. As he has since told multiple news outlets:

'It wasn't the first time I was in that situation. So I was able to keep my head, I was able to think. I was able to compose pictures. I think all of us were there and we just stayed in the moment, stayed on the story. In my head, I just kept saying to myself, "slow down, slow down. Compose, compose"'.

Most of all:

'I started thinking, OK, what’s going to happen next? Where is he going to go? Where do I need to be? Where do I need to stand? What is going to happen? The job is all about anticipation'.

And so is ours.

As I often remind my clients, and they in turn remind me the primary challenge for investors in a confused, noisy, too often hyperventilating world is to remain calm, focussed, confident, energised, knowledgeable, anticipatory and always in control.

Not enough time to read, not enough time to think probably means you’re too often on the backfoot.

And if you are too often on the backfoot, you’re probably going to underperform.

My job has always been to help time constrained investors narrow the range of uncertainty for investment decisions that must be made: then, where necessary, and where appropriate, tell them what to do.

It was and remains a Sisyphean task of constant reading, learning, consultation, collaboration, questioning, re-testing and confirmation..

..a never ending effort to be less wrong.

And anytime I am tempted to think I have rolled that Sisyphean stone to the top of the hill of understanding, it rolls back down again.

As you try to process, try to understand recent events channel Evan Vucci: he remained calm, focussed, confident, energised, knowledgeable, anticipatory and always in control.

And a result, he captured an image for the ages.

Be like Evan.

JA