The weekly digest — 28.08.24
A Winning Machine
What is more powerful than a 101-year-old winning machine? Since 1923, the S&P500 index has generated an annualised return of ~10.5%. For more than a century, it has:
Comprised of the bluest of the world’s blue-chip stocks, self, regulating and re-weighting these in line with their individual performances — eliminating user selection error.
Beaten 99.9% of professional investors, who typically underperform the index annually by ~2-3%, with the gap widening dismally over time.
Proven its stellar compounding potential; $1 invested in the index in 1923 would be worth more than $13,000 today.
Always regained its previous highs, surviving the Great Depression, one World War and the Covid pandemic.
Weekly Digest
This week, we received real-time, tangible evidence of the winning machine at work when Abbott paid its dividend. Remarkably, Abbott has paid uninterrupted quarterly dividends for more than 100 years; a testament to its privileged leadership position within the medical devices and healthcare space. How does the company protect its throne? Abbott reinforces its domination by continuing to invest in innovative solutions that address contemporary health and nutrition concerns, such as Protality, a muscle optimiser designed to mitigate the side effects concomitant with popular weight loss medications such as GLP-1. With its keen eye on the future, Abbott’s goal to improve the healthcare of one in every three people by 2023 provides a promising outlook for Abbott’s future and the continuity of its unbroken record of dividend payments.
To Have and To Hold
The greatest threat to our investment success? Us. So, how do we get ourselves from outset to outcome? Over four years, we’ve collected more than four million data points that demonstrate how a particular methodological communication keeps investors on track. This email is part of a powerful anticipatory feedback loop that works as a bad-decision buffer. With our handholding, evidence shows investors are far more likely to hold onto their investments — long enough to enjoy their wins.
