In response to the market crash of 2000, Marshall Loeb, an investment writer for CBS’s MarketWatch, developed ten investment axioms to live by. Mr. Loeb developed his axioms to help investors rebuild their portfolios once the financial markets started their recovery and to help insulate an investor’s portfolio from disaster during the next inevitable market downturn. We believe Mr. Loeb’s ten axioms are as true today as they were when he first developed them more than a decade ago.
1. There is no such thing as “short-term investing.”
2. Valuation still matters.
3. Asset allocation is a diversification strategy that works.
4. There's no opportunity for return without some risk.
5. Most dollars flow into high-performing investments after the performance has occurred.
6. A well-balanced portfolio should be diversified among the major asset classes: cash, fixed income, large and small companies, growth and value, and domestic and international.
7. Years of high returns can be completely reversed by one bad year.
8. Traditional rules of investing are still true.
9. Raw information is not knowledge.
10. Market timing doesn't work.
To read Marshall Loeb’s original article in MarketWatch, including commentary on each axiom, please click here.
