Don't try to shoot the lights out in a low return world

Remember the 1990s cliché by fund managers that they were "not trying to shoot the lights out" but just achieve consistent returns? It was out around the same time that everyone investing in technology drew a parallel with the gold rush and said they would rather be investing with the stores that sold the technology equivalent of picks and shovels than backing individual gold hunters. At a time when returns were high it is worth remembering many managers were happy to try and dampen down their risk, even if in retrospect they did not dampen it down nearly enough. Today in a low return...