The odds of at least one large bad streak of returns on risky assets during retirement is high, and few retirees will build up a buffer of
slack assets to prepare for that.
That said, investors have to plan for that capital to be drawn, and must have
some slack assets earning less to fund the later draws on capital.
I know that companies keep themselves slim to avoid takeovers, A large amount of
slack assets invites others to come in and buy the assets to manage them.
If buybacks ceased, companies might have a lot of
slack assets on hand.
People are capable of budgeting, so give them a fixed or slowly rising income to live off of, while investing
their slack assets to cover future increases in costs.
As with corporations, so with individuals / families: those with
slack assets and flexibility are able to deal with volatility better than those for whom the environment must be stable / favorable for the plan to succeed.
The only way to avoid runs on the company is to hold enough
slack assets that you know you will be alright in the worst of times, meaning a depression scenario, or, scenarios where nothing trades.
In the first part of this irregular series, I tried to point out the value of having
some slack assets should attractive opportunities present themselves.
When there are few
slack assets relative to investment needs, large premiums have to be offered to get investors to lock into a long - term investment, and bid - ask spreads tend to be wide as well.
How much
slack assets do their competitors have to snap up debt obligations at a bargain?
The safe liquid collateral was
a slack asset to them.
The safe liquid collateral was
a slack asset to them.
Not exact matches
* Information efficiency * Economic
slack * Contained inflation * Coordinated Central Banks * The growth of China and India and their continued purchasing of US debt * The growing perception that US dollar denominated
assets are the safest
assets in the world * A 30 + year trend of declining rates that is telling us we're more adept at managing inflation with each new cycle that passes
Some reasons for the fall include: the Federal Reserve lowering the Fed Funds rate, declining inflation, improved monetary efficiency, economic
slack, the continued global demand for US
assets, and relative stability in the US vs. other markets.
* Information efficiency * Economic
slack * Coordinated central banks * The dominance of China and India and their increased purchase of US debt * USD and US
assets as a continued safe haven * Rates have been going down for 30 + years in a row, the trend is telling us we're more adept at managing inflation with each new cycle
A good plan will attempt to leave some
slack in case
asset returns are lower than expected.
Survivors / winners sell their worst
assets and hunker down — they have enough financial
slack that they don't have to engage in panic behavior.
The main lesson: choose your maturity preference with care for
slack balances that you don't want to invest in risk
assets... you get more yield as you go longer, but the longer bonds lose money more rapidly for a given rise in interest rates.
In order for tail risk to be mitigated fairly, someone must keep a supply of
slack high quality
assets.
To return to a concept I discussed in the first column I wrote for RealMoney, Valuing Financial
Slack in the Steel Sector, banks with a high degree of leverage relative to the overall riskiness of their assets and liabilities possess little in the way of financial s
Slack in the Steel Sector, banks with a high degree of leverage relative to the overall riskiness of their
assets and liabilities possess little in the way of financial
slackslack.
Investors with sufficient financial
slack, like Warren Buffett, were able to wave in
assets at bargain prices.
Quick to pick up the
slack, Hong Kong - registered cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex announced today that it will immediately list the NEO token, the native
asset of the Neo blockchain ecosystem, which of course is a Mainland China developed platform and the country's most popular and internationally known.
After receiving over 50,000 applications for their ICO whitelist, in the process becoming the largest
Slack community in the world, the company has outlined their financial structure for the future, which is aligned towards long - term growth and viability as the crypto -
asset industry matures over the coming years.
Alternatives to bitcoin have picked up the
slack in recent months, as investors continue to be drawn to
assets with higher transaction capacity.