You may have heard the phrase, 'the
only constant is change itself.' Nothing could be more
true about the world of investing. In fact, the only constant
in the financial markets is that their values will go up
at some point just as surely as they will go down.
Your first line of defense in dealing with this uncertainty
is knowledge. Safety is achieved by understanding all of
the risks of an investment, not just the obvious ones.
Your next line of defense is asset allocation — the
first and most important step in building a diversified portfolio.
Professor
Roger Ibbotson, Yale University, chairman and founder
of Ibbotson Associates