Wisdom of the Ages - Part II

Marcus Aurelius

If you missed PART I - click here to read it.

“I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinion of others.”

~ Marcus Aurelius

For us at Gryphon this statement informs our behaviour in two ways:

1. Firstly, we are competitor agnostic.

The asset management industry has evolved into a ‘beauty competition’ with managers’ performance being available and evaluated on a daily basis.

Much attention is devoted to short-term performance rankings as well as relative performance between funds.

Does having two stents fitted instead of three make you any healthier than your colleague? Yet this seems to be the prevailing logic in assessing relative performance of the asset management industry.

Again we reference Wisdom of the Ages:

“If you are ever tempted to look for outside approval, realize that you have compromised your integrity. If you need a witness, be your own.” Epictetus

2. Secondly, this approach has led to us to trusting our philosophy and process completely and implementing our decisions accordingly.

Paranoid focus on relative performance has resulted in an industry where few are prepared to make bold moves. A review of performance of the multi-asset fund category reveals how unlikely it is for asset managers to make bold asset allocation moves. Rather than seek consensus, our efforts are directed at the best prospective returns. Our confidence in our process is reflected in our asset allocation decisions. We are fully invested in an asset class, or not invested there at all.

To know, understand and trust yourself requires time, effort and introspection. We believe that this is time well-spent. It is after all as Lewis Caroll said in Alice in Wonderland, “If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there.”

ENDS