Monday, September 1st, 2025
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After 17 years in equity investing, from US based hedge funds, to foreign exchange trading desks, I have learned some important lessons about how to invest successfully. What is more, these ideas are just as applicable in our day-to-day lives too.
Recently I was asked by someone ‘what is the number one lesson, the key takeaway from your career of how to be successful consistently in equity markets?
Is it about having the best talent, or the smartest people?’
No! Nothing is more common in finance than rooms full of smart people underperforming the S&P 500!
‘Is it about having the best educated investment team?’
Once again, no! The world is full of well-educated investors with business degrees buying the same stocks as everybody else (and underperforming the MSCI World!).
‘What about scale, surely, it’s the mega investors like Blackrock, et al., who always win?’
Name me a large fund manager and I’ll show you 50 of their active funds underperforming our funds.
In my view, nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent, genius, education, big resources, all pale into insignificance when compared with the power of determination and persistence to push forwards and stick with the plan.
As an investor, whether you are 18 years old or 78 years old, the advice remains the same. Stay invested for the long-term, and your persistence, your patience, will beat anyone on Wall Street with a business degree.
In practice, this is not an easy thing to achieve. When markets are rising and the economy is strong, investing can feel easy. Just buy and hold. But continuing to buy and hold when the economy weakens, when an inevitable market correction occurs, this is where the ordinary investor can become a hero.
Holding one’s nerve when all about you are losing theirs is the fundamental piece of this puzzle. Whether it’s inflation spikes (2022-2023), a global pandemic (2020), a slowing US economy (2018) or a financial crisis (2008), long-term investors must come to expect unexpected events, which will cause short-term corrections and even market crashes which can temporarily impair equity market prices.
The key to success is to stick with the plan. If stocks are cheaper, buy more. Whatever you do, don’t sell after markets have declined, if anything you buy more and be aggressive when others are fearful. These moments will come again, and investors must remember this lesson.
Persistence may sound easy but in reality, it is hard.
Do the hard thing, be persistent, and win!
We would like to thank Dominion Capital Strategies for writing this content and sharing it with us.
Sources: Bloomberg, Yahoo Finance, Marketwatch, MSCI.
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