What Story Does Your Portfolio Tell?
by Dennis Hammond, Head of Institutional Investments
I was ruminating today on Rod Stewart's song, “Every Picture Tells a Story”. Like the lyrics in Rod’s song, every portfolio tells a story, don’t it? It’s a reflection of the mission, the values, and the beliefs of its owner. The stocks in your portfolio read like words on a page, and the entire list of stocks in your portfolio, like a statement of your beliefs.
Your portfolio tells what is important to you, how important it is, and what you deem unimportant. It displays what you care about, who you care about, and who you do not care about. Like Fannie Brice in the musical, Funny Girl, it is “the beautiful reflection of (your) love’s affection”.
Although your portfolio may not tell a beautiful story, it does reveal an accurate one. It clearly speaks to your concerns about human slavery, child labor, abortion, household guns, and weapons of indiscriminate killing. It expresses your willingness to support building up, and tearing down.
Your portfolio expresses the best in you, such as your desire to care for the impoverished, to eliminate hunger, to provide affordable housing, clean water, health care, education, fair trade, and basic sanitation for all.
And it speaks of the worst in you, including your willingness to accept financial gains from sex trafficking, predatory lending, migrant slavery, dangerous workplaces, false advertising, corporate corruption, and environmental abuses.
Sometimes it speaks to products and practices so clearly abhorrent as to make humankind’s continued existence precarious.
Your portfolio says it all. Clearly and undeniably. In black and white. And in dollars and cents. All laid out for anyone to read.
I want to ask you one simple question: