This is a story about a kid from St. Louis who simply couldn’t keep up. The saxes were too acrobatic, and the drumming too mathematical. Though accomplished on the trumpet, he was no Dizzy Gillespie. Rather than continue to feel like he didn’t belong, however, he decided to leave the most coveted job in music at the time–playing trumpet for Charlie Parker–and make a change.
His name was Miles Davis.
Later, he explained his leap of faith and novel approach: “Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.” At first, he was laughed at but eventually the entire world came to know his record, Kind of Blue, as the greatest jazz album of all time.
Question is, what was he able to do that others were not? It certainly wasn’t the case that he was a better soloist, instrumentalist, or composer. Simply put, Miles Davis was born knowing how to quantify the level of risk he was willing to accept (in his case, limitless) and act accordingly.
At JCG we believe that jazz is more like investing than one would think. They are both about keeping up with the changes, making moves at the right time, and becoming comfortable with risk.
Do you feel sometimes like you are stuck in a rut or missing out? Or perhaps that your anxiety level is too high? In our experience, the vast majority of investors would say yes. To remedy that, we at JCG have a simple two step process: First, we sit, listen, and quantify your level of risk; and, second, we quantify the amount of risk in your portfolio then stress test it several times over to determine if who you are jibes with what you own. If not, we make appropriate recommendations that suit you and you alone. In the end, our goal is to free you up, so instead of fretting and waffling, you, too, can be like Miles and “play what’s not there” in your life instead of sounding like everyone else with a horn in their hand.