I do not want anyone to think that I am not paying attention to the world. While I am not a CNN junkie, I am reading as much as the next person and nothing that I read cheers me up. I actually counted the number of discouraging articles in the July 29 edition of The Economist. Bad news achieved a complete shutout.
The purpose of this reading is twofold. The first is that I am a citizen like anybody else and I am curious about the world that we live in. The second purpose is that I am an investment manager, and logic suggests that being well informed should be helpful to the investment process. For the record, I normally avoid gold stocks in the funds that I manage. I have broken with this pattern.
I do admit to having a love of history. I am proud to say that my wife Maxine and I funded a chair in Canadian history at the University of Toronto in honour of my late mother. While I believe that a good knowledge of history is useful, it is probably not a mandatory tool for the investor. In contrast, some knowledge of financial history is essential.
I recently spoke to a group of younger people in the financial community. They are called the Young Finance Professionals and I wish them well as they embark on careers in the financial world. Thinking about what to say to a keen group and answering questions is quite invigorating.
Some of the same questions are asked periodically by clients, or were asked on our road show, but this forum was much more relaxing. One topic that I introduced and subsequently have mulled over is the concept of how much financial history young people are supposed to know.
Consider veterans such as myself. I could talk from personal knowledge about every decade from the 1960s to the present and even contrast Canada, the United States and, to be optimistic, the rest of the world. My partners in their mid-30s can only do a similar exercise back to the 1990s and our youngest associate hypothetically knows nothing before 2000, but this is all artificial.
Suppose we were discussing the causes and repercussions of the Depression of the 1930s. None of us were alive during this period. Why should I, as the eldest, feel compelled to be the most knowledgeable? Is there a difference among our age groups in terms of who knows the most about Julius Caesar, Mozart, Rembrandt or even Fatty Arbuckle or Clara Bow?
What if a discussion ensued and we were reviewing the dot-com technology crash of 2000? Is our youngest recruit excused forever because she was still in high school?
I do not have all the answers and I am sure that others have studied these matters in great detail for decades, if not centuries. I am not a professional social scientist and I am not embarking on a crusade to obtain all the answers.
I do know one thing. I speak to groups of young people like this all the time. I have a connection to the University of Toronto, as I mentioned, and I have seen their graduates in action many times. While some have an enviable thirst for knowledge, many more are engaged in the ever practical search for a better job, or just a superior networking opportunity.
During such speaking engagements, one cannot escape without providing some career advice to the youngsters. Beyond saying that one should work hard and wear a clean shirt to the office, it is difficult to say something that is not mundane. However, as a result of writing this article, I am going to push for greater historical knowledge.
This month I have been reading The American Home Front: 1941-1942 by Alistair Cooke. Am I doing this to improve my investing abilities, for pure enjoyment or for something in the middle? It doesn't matter.
I say that ambitious young people will go out of their way to gain a much better knowledge of our financial history. I was very careful in the last sentence. I am trying to be practical. This is a financial column and I am hypothetically addressing the topic of young people.
I do not want to sound like a dinosaur. I can visualize huge trading floors and see hundreds of youngsters trading vigorously and without a worry in their heads about the 1970s versus the 1980s, but much of this trading is becoming automated. Historical knowledge and communications skills may become more valuable one day.
Sorry about the serious tone, but after all we are in the midst of a war.
Ira Gluskin is president and chief investment officer of Gluskin Sheff + Associates.