Full Circle?

Is there a German word along the lines of schadenfreude for when you figure something out from the student perspective and then later from the mentor perspective.

1. My lesson as the student

Years ago I worked at Fisher Investments for a short time. I learned a ton when I was there, really a lot. The culture was not for me though so I left.

2. One thing I learned about in my time there was behavioral finance

I knew a little but came away understanding a lot more.

3. Years later

I interviewed the firm's namesake, Ken Fisher, when I brought up behavioral finance, he pretty much said he'd moved on from behavioral finance. I was stunned and fascinated at the same time.

4. My investment process from 20 years ago

Much of my process for portfolio construction came from what I learned at Fisher but that was more than 20 years ago and it has been evolving ever since. I use different tools for managing volatility because there are more available for example. My thoughts on sector weighting is another one and there are some others.

5. Now as the mentor?

Someone whose investment process I influenced pretty heavily (as I recently learned) cited some process points that he learned from to me that I have evolved away from because I think markets have evolved away from those points.

6. The need to keep learning

I spend a lot of my time trying to learn more, learn more about how to think about risk, learn more about how markets and the world are changing, learn more about investment strategies and learn more about investment products to access those investment strategies. The points that they took from me were developed before the financial crisis. In this context, that was a lifetime ago.

I don't believe this person I influenced has put in the time to hone their process, maybe they had too much going on to do so but either way.

7. Learning from the student?

I talk frequently about things evolving, including investment process. Seeing the missteps of the person I long ago influenced was a great reiteration for me of the importance to keep moving forward. As many things have changed from 15 years ago to today, how different will they be, 15 years from now?