I was swimming when I thought about the similarities between swimming blind in a pool and swimming blind in the stock market. At the time, I was in Kuala Lumpur, where my sons and I love to swim. Since it was a hot day, as it often is in Malaysia, we decided to take a dip in the amazing infinity pool overlooking the Kuala Lumpur skyline and the Petronas Twin Towers.

I have three competitive sons. So, we decided to challenge each other to see who could hold their breath the longest swimming to the other side. We spent a good hour warming up, doing laps, holding our breath underwater, and expanding our lungs. Each determined to outlast one another. We preferred to push ourselves to the brink of death rather than yield to one another.

The water was highly chlorinated, making it difficult to keep our eyes open for any length of time. As a result, our eyes were red from the irritation. It was nearly impossible to swim underwater without the temptation to look around. Since we were just passing through, we hadn’t brought any goggles, which we usually would have.

We decided on our destination: the right side of the pool, which was the only area not crowded with swimmers.

🏊 Everyone had their turn warming up and then leaping off.

The youngest kicked off and managed to swim about a third of the distance, which was impressive. Then the middle child leapt off and only barely beat him. When it was my oldest son’s turn, he pushed off and swam with all his might, getting just a few meters away from the other end. We were swimming in a 25-meter pool.

They all waited along the wall we had chosen, breathing intently as they anticipated my turn.

As a competitive swimmer myself, I was eager to go. I leapt off and dove deep into the water. In my mind, I felt like a stingray gliding effortlessly, maintaining perfect form. My lungs were relaxed as I enjoyed the stretching and the challenge. After what felt like a long time, I decided to open my eyes and gauge how far was left. The chlorine was so strong that I figured I should just focus on my direction, rather than burning my eyes further. So, I powered through and kept swimming.

After what felt like minutes, I opened my eyes again, only to find myself dangerously close to a man’s crotch. Shocked, I popped my head up, my eyes bloodshot and splashing around, while a group of tourists stared at me, clearly unimpressed that I was about to swim right into them.

I realised I had veered off course, landing miles from my intended destination on the far left side of the pool. Despite swimming hard, I not only fell short of the destination but also failed to complete the full distance as I had gone off track.

🥽 With goggles on and my eyes open, I would have maintained my course and achieved my goal.

This is when the correlation between swimming blind in a pool and navigating the markets became clear to me. Many investors choose a destination, and put in the effort, but then close their eyes underwater. They have a plan and chart a course, yet they shut their eyes when it matters most.

It’s essential to remain vigilant at all times when investing in stocks or any other investment. Swimming blind is akin to putting money into companies without keeping up to date with their performance. Not paying attention to how a business is performing, its earnings, financial health, or whether it is achieving the objectives set by management can lead to poor investment decisions.

Some investors deploy capital into the markets and then forget about it. You need to keep your 🥽 goggles on and your eyes open at all times. Staying on course is an incredibly challenging aspect of investing. It is so easy to swim off course when Investing for the long term.

Whether investing in individual stocks or other asset classes, it’s essential to stay aligned with your direction and plan. Writing an investment philosophy and strategy isn’t overly complex. Outlining your goals and creating a plan can be simple, but sticking to that plan and staying on track is often the hardest part.

Keeping your finger on the pulse of your investments is like swimming straight; if you wear goggles and keep your eyes open, you generally end up on course. This metaphor resonates with me after 15 years of investing in equities, during which I have encountered this lesson numerous times. Often, it’s not the plan or the direction that is wrong; instead, it’s my failure to recognise when I’ve veered off course because I was floating along without awareness.

This concept can help improve all aspects of your investment journey.

Perhaps your goal was to adopt a moderate-risk approach through ETF investing or focusing on large and mid-cap stocks, but you’ve strayed into micro and small-cap high-risk speculation. Maybe you intended to follow a simple, consistent dollar-cost averaging strategy, but you’ve deviated in an attempt to pick individual stocks. Or perhaps you’ve stopped conducting thorough analysis and due diligence on your investment ideas, rushing the process instead of sticking to the fundamentals of your investment thesis.

Veering off course can happen in various ways. The best method to get back on track is to revisit what you are trying to achieve. Ensure that your goals, investment horizon, risk appetite, and objectives are still aligned with your original plan and then return to the strategy you’ve set out.

Your Investment Process is your Goggles. The process gives the Investment Philosophy and strategy life. The process allows you to ensure you are swimming towards the destination not into a group of tourists.

We are all susceptible to drifting away from our intended destination, and this can occur in all areas of life. Acknowledging that you are off course and then recalibrating is essential for success in life and in the stock market.