“WEATHERING THE STORM” - GLOBAL REI SURVIVAL MANUAL CHAOS REIGNS ZIV MAGEN
In this issue, we'll attempt to expand this
growth, the entire Asia-Pacific region, large parts of
philosophy of preparedness a bit more and try to
which are dependent on Chinese imports, slows
take it up a notch and apply it to our entire strategy
accordingly. When the US sub-prime crisis hit, the
analysis - our "global investor's headspace", if you
entire world felt it, in ways too complex to detail
will. After all, volatility isn't limited to exchange
herein. And the trend isn't limited to the world's
rates only. On the contrary, exchange rate
biggest economies, either - not by a long shot
fluctuations are merely derivatives and reflections
(think Greece and its bankruptcy effect on all
of global moods, regional economies, and their
European markets, for instance).
corresponding relationships.
All of which have
been growing more and more volatile on a yearly
basis, as the world's various financial and property
SURFING THE TIDES OF CHAOS
markets become more intertwined than ever
So where does this leave us as property investors?
before.
How do we ensure we're on the winning side of the
In the early eighties, "The Chaos Theory" became
equation when the unexpected occurs?
an overnight hit - a semi-scientific series of
speculative books and articles, which tried to
illustrate how minor changes in the environment in
one corner of the globe can lead to cataclysmic
results in another.
Some of you might recall
Well, the key, in this author's opinion, lies in three
major thought disciplines, which we must adopt,
and in action items which are necessarily born of
adopting them -
reading one of its most famous paradigms, which
claimed that a butterfly fluttering its wings in Africa
can cause, through a long series of exponentially
growing chain reactions, a tropical storm in the
USA.
These days, we don't need books and articles to
drive this point home. With “cyber space” ruling our
lives in a very real and physical manner, distances
become irrelevant as countries and market sectors
world-wide become connected via endless nerves
of constantly flowing financial data. It doesn't take
a "Chaos Theorist" to understand that a financial
uptick or downturn, in any corner of the world, can
have an immediate, overnight effect on another,
however physically remote. When China slows its
If you're buying,
you should be buying
because you found
a good deal.
If you're selling,
you should be selling
because you're making a profit.
There are
NO other reasons,
period