The Compound and Friends - We are not going to participate in this recession

Episode Date: March 20, 2020

I made a decision. We are not going to participate in this recession. There's too much work to be done. Bank of America Merrill Lynch anticipates something like 3.5 million American jobs lost by the end of the 2nd quarter and a doubling of the unemployment rate. We have no control over that. We only have control over our response to it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the Compound Show podcast. Each week, we let you in on some of the best conversations we're having about markets, investing, and life. Just a quick reminder, the hosts of this show are employees of Ritholtz Wealth Management. All opinions expressed are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of Ritholtz Wealth. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon for investment decisions. Clients of Ritholtz Wealth Management may maintain positions in the securities discussed

in this podcast. Okay, here we go. So this is the last thing I want to say, and I'm going to be very clear about this. And I want everyone to let this message sink in. We were told by somebody that informally advises the firm on financial stuff to come up with an emergency plan for just in case this lasts two quarters, three quarters, a full year. Obviously, nobody really knows. But what do we do as a firm, not for clients, but for the business in the case of an emergency? I'm going to tell you that without a doubt, our firm will be impacted, as will every company doing business everywhere in America and probably the world. So let's be real about that. But I'm also going to tell you, we are not

going to participate in this recession. Let me repeat that. It's very important. We are not going to participate in this recession. We're not going to do it. We're not going to do it. There's not going to be any participation on our part. We are business as usual. We are raising money every day. Every week between 20 and 30 new inquiries are coming to us. Why? Because we can help people and people need help. And we are not going to sit back. We are not going to relent. We are not going to stop. We're not going to let work at home conditions, shelter in place conditions, stop us from delivering the help that people are asking for and that people need. And that's existing clients being the priority, then new clients helping ourselves. We will not take part in this recession. So while we have an emergency plan, and we're formulating plans for different scenarios, those plans do not include letting any of our employees fall along the wayside. this as a team. This is not a recession that we're going to take part in. And we're going to engage in this game of trying to save some people's asses, but not others. It's not going to happen. I need all of you. I need all of you in order to be able to do what we're doing. There's no way it

works without you. Everyone listening to this, I don't have any extra people. I need you guys. So we're not going to have any participation in this recession whatsoever. And it's not good enough for me to just say it. I need everybody to live that. And I know we're doing it already. Okay. I know we're already living that. I need us to continue to live that no matter what the market throws at us, no matter what the CDC says, the infection rate, the body count. I'm so sick of it. But I'm telling you right now, no matter what, I need you all. We're not going to participate in the recession. Remember that every morning when you get up, okay, we're not laying people off. We're

not cutting people. We're not cutting hours. We are going to persevere through this together. No matter what we have to do, that's how it's going to be. I decided, and as you all know, when I decide something, it usually happens. I decided there's no recession at Ritholtz Wealth Management. Okay. So I want to be very, very clear on that. I mean, every word I said, I hope you're hearing me and I hope you're having this message sink in so that you have the confidence to do what our clients need you to do every day. No matter what your role is at this firm, you are important to this firm. We have no fat to trim. I have some personally, but as a business, we don't have any.

And if you find yourself with time and you don't know what to do, by all means, ask Chris. By all means, Chris is doing six people's jobs right now. By all means, if you don't know how you can help, ask Erica. Ask Erica. She's got her hands full. OK, we will give you things to do. But I'm telling you guys, we're not involved in the recession. OK, our job is to help our clients get through it. We're not going to play there. That's the bottom line. And I want everyone to hear me very clearly on that. What we're going to do going forward is what we have always done. We are going to be resourceful. We're going to be clever. We're going to mean what we say. We're going to be fiduciaries to our clients. We are going to execute on our strategic asset management, our tactical asset

management, the content that we do. We are going to execute. I think we've done a phenomenal job so far, however many days we are into this thing. We may not be halfway there yet. That's the reality. Don't go by my opinion. This is what some of the top experts are saying. We may not even be halfway. It doesn't matter. We will not stop. Our clients will be served. Our firm is going to emerge from this, not just back to the way we were. This is a very important point. This is going to be a slingshot for this firm. Right now, the rubber band is merely being pulled back. It's merely being pulled back. And when the economy goes back to normal, whenever that is, okay, second quarter, third quarter, I don't give a shit. This is going to be a slingshot. The rubber band will be released,

and we are going to go into the stratosphere. That's what happens for firms that do the right thing during the dark times. The referrals pour in. The clients stay. New clients hear all about it and they come. That's what's going to happen with us. I'm telling you right now, when you listen to Peter Malouk at Creative Planning, talk about what his firm did in 07, 08, 09. His firm didn't just go up by 20% when the market recovered by 20%. His firm went from a billion to $40 billion. How the fuck does that happen? It happens because they did what they had to do for their clients when times were tough. And then when things got better, they were in so much better shape than any of their competitors. This is going to be a slingshot for us. There's no recession.

There is only planning for the recovery. And I want to be very clear on that. I want everyone to be thinking about that today, tomorrow, the next day. And I'm telling you guys right now, if that's the mindset, if that's the mindset that we all have, and we're all in this together, If that's the mindset, if that's the mindset that we all have, and we're all in this together, what's going to happen on the other side of this is going to be miraculous. Okay? I've seen it. I've seen other firms do it.

I'm not inventing this. I've seen it. It's going to happen for us. I really appreciate everybody's hard work. Thank you for tuning in. We'll be back on this call on Monday. Let's finish the week out strong. I don't care what the market does.

You know what you have to do. Talk to you soon. Thanks for listening. Check us out at thecompoundnews.com for daily investing and market insights. You can watch all of our videos at youtube.com slash thecompoundrwm. Talk to you next week.