(Dec 27): Hedge your holdings. Stay defensive. Figure out a risk tolerance and do not buy anything that keeps you up at night. All the investment advice at the tail end of the financial crisis came with a huge dollop of caution.
So, at the start of the century’s troubled teens, who would have predicted US stocks would not only lock themselves into the longest bull market ever, they would also do better than they ever had before? But that is exactly what happened. Adjusted for risk — or, more precisely, the volatility stock investors had to bear — gains in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index since Dec 31, 2009 are poised to be the highest of any decade since at least the 1950s.
