But from a decision-making perspective, where does the difference then start to come in to say, I've taken a decision, I've gotten it wrong, but even then, I'm still up in my portfolio's performance on a longer-term basis?

Yeah.

So there are a few things, but the most simple idea here is really just, why is it not only about how many you get right, is that it's also about when you get something right, how right are you? So how much are you winning when you get it right? And conversely, when you make a mistake, when you get an investment wrong, how much are you losing? So even if you're only 50-50, you might say like, oh, that's a coin flip.

It's not saying much.

But as long as you winning quite big on your winners and you're making sure that your losers are not costing you too much.

For example, you know, you're cutting your losers quickly so you can limit your losses.

You can actually still do really well.

Tim, before I let you go, what are some of the easy things that long-term investors often overlook when evaluating their investments? Whether you're evaluating investment decisions that you've taken, whether you're evaluating those that you've let go of, what are some of the very specific decisions that long-term investors often forget to think

But how do you how do you manage that?

Yeah, so the jokes people sometimes make, especially about value investors, I guess, is what is the definition of a long-term investment? It's a short-term investment that didn't work out, right? So the danger, especially, I think, if you're a value-type investor...

Or if you're sort of a more long-term investor is that you buy a stock and it doesn't go your way, the stock price declines or the results are not as good as you hoped.

And then you say, no, no, it's fine.

Don't worry.

I'm a long-term investor.

I'm just going to wait.

Do you have an example of one of those investments where we did look wrong for quite a period of time and then it actually played out and you looked very clever at the end of it? Yeah,

It is, it is not doing what one would normally expect gold to do, which is, I think, perhaps a warning for investors.

Yeah, good morning, and good morning to the listeners.

You, you're 100% right.

So if we think, you know, why do people historically own something like gold, um, you know, typically it holds its value quite well when other assets are down, when markets are falling, a hedge against inflacio- i- inflation.

You know, it's typically seen as a store of value when people lose trust in a currency or in governments.

Um, and you know, and lately that's, that's obviously the argument people have been using is, you know, loss of confidence in the US dollar, independence of the Fed-

Yeah.

So now it's dominating your return, right? And, and the volatility you're getting from that movement every day in the gold and platinum prices is moving your portfolio, sort of swinging it up and down.

But these are all things that investors need to absolutely be cognizant of and pay attention to, especially in a time like this where valuations might not be as easy to determine as what they used to be.

Yeah, let me pull on that thread you mentioned about diversification.

So I mentioned the market has gone up quite a lot in South Africa, but actually it's quite a small part of the market, which did really well over the last year and a half.

So it's really those gold and platinum shares, which have been in the news, you know, fairly often.

And that's because the gold price went up a lot last year and platinum prices were really strong.

And those gold and platinum mining shares are quite a big part of the local market.

So that's really what was driving a lot of the stock market return.

So with the future being unpredictable, Tim, how do we start to find value in the markets? Where do we start in terms of value identification, whether it's local markets and we're looking to look beyond the precious metals, whether it's international markets and we're looking to look beyond the AI trade? Where do we start to identify those pockets of value that we need to then assess and review and refine beyond what might be the trending trade at the moment?