On May 12-13 I had the opportunity to attend the Goldman Sachs Investor Forum. It wasn’t the presentations and discussions about US equity markets, international markets, fixed income markets or portfolio construction that resulted in my biggest takeaway. The most memorable comment was “Roger, I’m tracking the target.”
After the first full day of presentations our dinner speakers were the Kelly brothers. Identical twin brothers Captain Mark Kelly, commander of the space shuttle Endeavour’s final mission, and Captain Scott Kelly, who recently returned from nearly a full year on the international space station and has spent a total of more than 500 days in space, the most of any American.
Their stories of being in space were fascinating, but what really stuck with me was Mark’s story of his first combat mission in Iraq. His mission was to bomb an aircraft hangar in Iraq. He and his bombardier, Paul, took off from the Persian Gulf headed to the airstrip. Along the route they had to cross a surface-to-air missile envelope. While passing through the envelope Mark spotted a missile headed towards them. He notified Paul of the situation, to which his response was “Roger, I’m tracking the target.” Luckily Mark was able to perform a last minute evasive maneuver and the missile exploded just beyond the aircraft. Not much later, he spots a second missile. Again he notifies Paul, and again his response is “Roger, I’m tracking the target.” Performing the same evasive maneuver Mark avoids the second missile and they went on to complete the mission.
Reflecting on the mission Mark pointed out that Paul was focusing on the factors that he could control. Paul couldn’t do anything to avoid the missile, that was Mark’s job, but Paul could focus on tracking the target so that the two of them could successfully complete the mission.
As investors and advisors it can be easy to get distracted by the missiles flying at us, US equity markets going nowhere but up and down, fears of a British exit from the EU, potential challenges in China, the impact of the Fed raising rates, low wage growth, etc. While it is obviously important to avoid these potential missiles to an investment portfolio, it is just as important to make sure we continue to track the long term target, whether it is a retirement date, an asset goal, an income goal, etc.
-Jeremiah Riethmiller
Director, Investment Strategy & Research