MLC Market Watch

September 11, 2001 shook the world. In this extract from keynote magazine, MLC’s General Manager of the Investment Management Division, Michael Clancy, talks about its impact on financial markets and on what lessons he believes we can learn from it.

On September 11 2001, Mr Clancy was in a taxi headed towards Heathrow airport in the UK, bound for an appointment with an investment manager at the World Trade Centre in New York at 9am the next morning.

“Over the radio we heard on the news an aeroplane had crashed into one of the Twin Towers. At that time we presumed it was an accident involving a light aircraft,” he said. “The concept that somebody would deliberately fly a plane into one of the towers was unimaginable.”
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Regardless of what’s happening in the market, investment fundamentals don’t change.

In this extract from keynote magazine, financial adviser Rod Scurrah speaks about what he learnt from the 1973 high inflation and OPEC oil crisis:

“I joined the industry on 27 November 1972,” said Rod Scurrah. “The Monday before Gough Whitlam was elected Prime Minister of Australia. That event brought a significant change to the financial landscape of Australia.”

In what was to become a challenging financial environment, Rod Scurrah began his career as a financial adviser in Hobart, a part of Australia he still calls home.

“In the early 1970s we saw high unemployment and high inflation, and people’s perspective of investing changed. I say investing, but it was really saving then,” he said. “As an industry, and a population, what we started to learn was to focus away from the short term and onto the long term.”

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While periods such as these can be deeply concerning, the truth is they actually happen quite regularly.

With this in mind, MLC’s keynote magazine decided to speak to three people who have been through other market meltdowns throughout history.

In this extract, keynote speaks to MLC Senior Investment Specialist, John Owen, about his experience of the 1987 Black Tuesday Crash.

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