Stock markets from Toronto to New York to London are taking a much needed break today. Over the past few weeks, there has been a lot of market volatility - partly due to the usual spate of quarterly earnings reports, which are typically more fickle times, thanks to traders who enjoy betting on the results and the media selling news.

Despite the volatility, the past week has been very much the same, forwards and backwards:

4/12/14
4/13/14
4/14/14
4/15/14
4/16/14
4/17/14
4/18/14
4/19/14

Neat huh? Numerically-inclined nerds refer to this quirky occasion as 'palindrome week' – and it only happens every 100 years. Just when you thought it couldn’t get numerically cooler, notice that for 10 consecutive days this month, adding up the digits in each calendar date results in the same number as that day of the month:

For example, on April the 15th, 4+1+5+1+4 = 15. Mind blown.

The essence of palindrome week reminds me of my favourite quote, by Soren Kierkegaard, a Danish Philosopher I came across during a university elective course:

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards”.

So simple in it’s delivery but it makes you really think twice, doesn’t it? This profound acknowledgement of how we interpret life is also indicative of the way we view the market.

You’ve heard this before: “past performance is not indicative of future results”. But for many investors, it’s natural to look at historical investment performance returns when making their investment decisions and setting their expectations about the future.

Yes, past performance can give you an idea of what to expect, but it’s important to remember that investment returns tend to go in cycles. Generally, the pattern of these returns is that a very good year is a hard act to follow and that bad years are often followed by recoveries.

This is why a disciplined investment approach, at it’s core, is based on diversification and asset allocation and further complimented by research, reporting and analysis. Working with an investment professional helps you to make sense of these things and guides you to go beyond investment management to implement a full wealth management strategy that incorporates the financial planning, tax planning, estate planning and insurance planning necessary to keep more of what you’ve worked so hard to earn.

Enjoy the weekend.

D.

Dian Chaaban

Investment & Wealth Advisor

Chaaban Wealth Management Group

416.842.4234