Uncertain? Be Ready.

#investors

Sometimes, the market can be like a very demanding golf course. This earnings season, take time to think about many different kinds of outcomes, and identify your stocks and the strategies to play them before they’re standing right in front of you.

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At the end of the bag, below the driver and 3-wood and opposite the putter, are a bunch of wedges: gap wedge, 60-degree, chipper, sandy, full 9, and a few middle irons. If you watched the Masters, the tour guys hit with a bunch of wedges, the occasional iron, and their driving clubs. They practice with all of them, and then they play the course, happy to hit using what the shot calls for. Ok, so maybe you can’t hit your 9 iron 160 over trees and TV towers like Rory, but you don’t have to. You’re not trying to win at Augusta this week.

It’s fun to dream about it, but I suggest you attempt the less grandiose. Instead, let’s focus on making the cut. As much as in golf as in investing, the way to do that is to practice every shot and be ready for what Mr. Market gives you. Survive. Who knows when things will settle out? Probably not soon. So best to prepare for earnings by taking a few hours on the range this week. Try working on those idea types. Maybe you can swing hard once or twice when you have a very clean lie and a good look at the pin. Maybe you’ll even hold the green. But with all this uncertainty, it pays to be ready because we’re just not sure when “just in case” will happen.