Riding the Wave of Volatility

These are interesting times indeed.

Trump and China are brawling. The CEO of one of the most influential companies in the world is smoking weed on live television. Mother Nature is spitting out natural disasters faster than Eminem is dropping diss tracks. It appears as if the walls holding in an alternate reality have cracked, leaking out the shitstorm that they held into our own reality, blurring the lines between what is real and fictional. I honestly believe that if Kanye West becomes the next president of the U.S.A. the whole world would be like: "yeah, that makes sense. It isn't even the weirdest thing that has happened this week".

Throughout all of this endless turmoil, how does one remain calm? Emerging markets and currencies have taken a battering, cryptocurrencies have caused grey hairs, and now US markets appear poised to correct themselves and wipe out gains that investors have accumulated over the last few happy years. I don't know where to turn, who to look to for safety. Does one leave their money in the bank, retreating to the supposed safety of the financial institutions entrenched in controversy? Or does one buy now that blood is in the water? When you are playing with your future, as all young investors are, it is all too easy to defer the problem: "I'll invest when things calm down a bit." Things probably won't calm down. EVER.

That is why I think I will fight the conservative, risk-averse nature that has underpinned my entire being to date and try dip my toes into shark-infested waters. Buy while things are cheap. Take calculated risks, without, for example, betting my future children's futures on the belief that Bitcoin will replace gold.

What's the worst that could happen?