Is there a formula for investment success?

They say there’s no formula for success, but with years of experience offering personalised investment advice and now with over $1 billion of funds under management, our investment committee has learned that when these six elements are in place, investment success generally follows.
1. Ignore investment noise
With so much upheaval in the world, it is easy to get rattled by the stream of unsettling economic news, but it’s important to tune out the noise and stick to your guns. This has been key to FMD’s approach to building long-term investment returns over 15 years.
 
2. Start early and think long-term
Successful investing is about generating good returns over the long term. “Timing” the market is harder than you think.  You can make tactical asset allocation decisions that improve returns, which is a considered step in our investment process, but “time in” the market really matters. So it’s important to start investing early in life.
 
3. Get the strategy right
Asset allocation is the main driver of your long term returns. Our Investment Committee (IC) spends a lot of time getting this right in conjunction with our expert investment strategy partners. We then maintain a range of portfolios to suit all risk profiles and objectives.
 
4. Diversify and manage for the downside
We select a portfolio of investments that perform differently in up and down markets to balance risk and maximise returns. This is why having a portfolio of diversified assets is critical to success, particularly in volatile times.
 
5. Invest with the best
We select the best direct investments and active fund managers in each asset class. Our Investment Committee (IC) sifts through hundreds of options to find those with a long history of outperformance and the rising stars. We then back them to do their job in our high performing portfolios.
 
6. Move quickly and review often
The principal of active management is at the heart of everything we do and we’ve built a robust approach to monitoring and ongoing portfolio management. Our Active Management Service (AMS), for AMS Funds and AMS Shares enables us to move quickly to rebalance portfolios in response to market fluctuations, keeping clients informed every step of the way while aiming to improve overall outcomes for investors.