By Tom Bradley

Salman, Scott and I had a chance to meet with the manager of the Equity Fund last week. Gord O’Reilly, the ‘O’ in CGOV Asset Management, confirmed what we’ve been hearing from other asset managers, which is that the volatility we’ve seen in the first 6 weeks of this year has been remarkable. Gord described it as being “inhuman”.

You name the asset type and there’s been big moves, sometimes in both directions. We’re talking currencies, bond yields, and a variety of industry sectors, including oil and bank stocks.

But importantly, Gord also said, “For people like us that are valuation driven, it’s [volatility] fantastic.”

As we tried to reinforce at our client presentations this month, investors should never be surprised by big market moves and short-term volatility. It’s as much a part of investing as losing is to Toronto hockey (2 minutes for piling on).

We all need to have Gord’s attitude, or better yet, hire someone who is going to embrace volatility, not run from it.