Cosmo DeStefano

“Where’s the market headed?” “What happens next?” I get hit with some version of this question almost every day. My honest answer, “I have no idea,” doesn’t usually land all that well. Even though most people don’t say it out loud, I can feel them thinking: you’ve been investing for over three decades, how can you not have an opinion?! But people are digging for more than an opinion; they are looking for me to provide direction and a verdict on the macro economy.

Why capital preservation is the compounding strategy nobody talks about Most investors spend their lives chasing returns, better picks, hotter funds, and the next IPO poised for a moonshot. It’s understandable since returns are posted everywhere and brag-worthy at dinner parties. Risk, by contrast, is abstract and not as easily reduced to a number.

Most investors spend their lives chasing returns, better picks, hotter funds, and the next IPO poised for a moonshot. It’s understandable since returns are posted everywhere and brag-worthy over holiday dinners. Risk, by contrast, is abstract and not as easily reduced to a number. I operate from a simple belief, forged over my three decades in the market: the way we make money over the long term is by not losing too much in the short term. It’s not a complicated idea.