By Tom Bradley

I was talking with a client last week about portfolio re-balancing and the challenges of volatile markets. I often tell the story of Bob Hager’s shaking hand to illustrate how hard it is to do the right thing when markets are down, but his story is just as good at bringing the challenge to life.

Our client was telling me that he’d read our August 10th blog (What now? Part II) and agreed with it. With markets well down from their highs and valuations getting attractive, he felt it was time to move more money into stocks. The day he planned to do it, however, was a particularly brutal one in the markets, so when he went to pick up the phone, he said it felt like it was “glued down”. His brain was saying one thing, but his emotions were telling him otherwise. As he tried to make the call, he was acutely aware of this internal wrestling match.

As it turns out, he did get the phone to his ear and got the trades done as planned. He stuck to the strategy that he’d laid out last year (with Chris’ help), but it got sticky there for a few minutes.