The most important thing you can have is a good strategic asset allocation mix. So, what the investor needs to do is have a balanced, structured portfolio – a portfolio that does well in different environments…. we don’t know that we’re going to win. We have to have diversified bets.

History shows you don’t know what the future brings.

On average, 90 percent of the variability of returns and 100 percent of the absolute level of return is explained by asset allocation.

The conventional asset-allocation method is like sheet music. It is prescribed, it has right answers and wrong answers and it sounds about the same every time. But jamming is different. Jamming is when you make the music. When you improvise and adapt to conditions. When you are creative.

I don’t often know where my ideas come from. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m obsessively regimented in my analysis, borderline autistic. But whether it’s bond selection or asset allocation, we can do it better than just about anybody around.

The most important key to successful investing can be summed up in just two words-asset allocation.