ADVERTORIAL FEATURE
Embracing the unpredictable
Please remember that the value of an investment can fall and you may not get back the amount invested .
Cast your mind back to being told you couldn ’ t see friends or family because of Covid , or to a time your travel plans were disrupted because a plane was cancelled at the last minute . Such situations upset us because our brains are wired to cope with slow , predictable change . It ’ s no wonder we ’ re so disturbed by sudden circumstances beyond our control . That ’ s how Kirsty Gibson , joint manager of both the Baillie Gifford US Growth Trust and American Fund , explains the anxiety about prospects for growth investors in these turbulent times . We humans prefer structure and , ultimately , control .
Gibson is aware of how uncomfortable market volatility can be for many investors . But she nevertheless believes that unpredictability is something we must learn to accept – or even embrace . “ The past year has been a very uncomfortable time to be a growth investor but it ’ s also a very exciting time to be one . “ We ’ ve had a lot of questions about bubbles and overheating and growthversus-value , questions that are wellfounded . But these questions reflect the idea of the human need to believe that change should be incremental and that we ’ re heading to a period of stasis , where all that change is bedded down and we can begin to relax into a new normality . But what if we are just at the tip of the iceberg of change ?”
Imaginative leaps For Gibson and colleagues , the job of an investor seeking companies capable of outsized returns in turbulent times is to stop hoping for steady incremental growth . Nor should they draw over-simple analogies from what happened with previous disruptive businesses .
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