Conducting Your Portfolio

Anyone who skips polkas and waltzes directly on the trading floor to dance along again later sometimes misses the highlights of the ball night. That is why I say a loud "Me!" as soon as the fast polka by Eduard Strauss is played. Especially after a difficult year 2022. Happy New Year!
 
Eduard Strauss (1835-1916) was the youngest of the three Strauss brothers, Johann Strauss (son) and Josef Strauss. With Eduard's polka "Wer tanzt mit?" (“Who joins in, dancing?” Me!), conductor Franz Welser-Möst opened the Vienna Philharmonic's New Year's Concert 2023 in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein.

Art and science

More than a million people in small Austria followed the concert at home on their screens. Worldwide, it was broadcast in over 100 countries. For over 180 years, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra has managed to maintain and expand its important position in music history. Praised by composers such as Richard Wagner, Anton Bruckner, Johannes Brahms and Gustav Mahler. The quality of the individual musicians combines to form an extraordinary whole, each violin and oboe contributing to the body of sound.
 
As such, when we put a portfolio together at Gutmann, we pay attention to the quality of each individual investment. The result is a total work of art that has its own dynamic. You can call it a work of art, because investment is not a pure science. Investing is both an art and a science.

Special selection creates special conditions

We investors are conductors of our own portfolio. Who does not want to hire the best of the best? The Philharmonic Orchestra certainly wants to; they manage this through their very own filter: “In accordance with Philharmonic statutes, only a member of the Vienna State Opera Orchestra can become a member of the Vienna Philharmonic. Before joining the Philharmonic therefore, one must first successfully audition for a position with the State Opera Orchestra and prove oneself capable over a period of three years before becoming eligible to submit an application for membership in the association of the Vienna Philharmonic.”
 
There is a big difference when comparing the selection of the best stocks to the selection of the best musicians. If a horn player suddenly demands ten million euros in salary per year, he will be advised to visit a psychiatric clinic. The payment bears no relation to the total income of the orchestra and his individual contribution.
 
It is not like that on the stock market. Even a young tutti violinist can be weighed up in gold there. The reason is the hope of enormous future profits.

Royal road and sound ideal

It is a bad strategy to always chase the headline-dominating and thus often most expensive topics on the stock market. That is why we at the Gutmann Chief Investment Office emphasize a balance in our investment themes. Hope, fantasy and ultimately greed know no bounds. Even if in some phases it seems that no price can be too high, the gravitation of the corporate success is at work. No share price can escape this in the long term.
 
Based on many years of analysis, outstanding companies around the globe are flagged. However, they should only be added to a portfolio if the price is right. A little patience is required, but the next price correction is bound to come. Be it for the stock market as a whole or a setback in a single sector. Sometimes a rainy quarter for a single company is enough to find attractive entry prices. Then the investor only needs the necessary courage to strike despite short-term negative news.
 
The Philharmonic differs from other large orchestras in its very own Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra’s sound, cultivated and passed on from generation to generation. 
 

The very own style of music

Thus, each portfolio must also have its own sound. For a growing number of investors, the harmony of index funds is sufficient. The number of musicians there is so extensive that a crooked sound of the individual is covered by the totality. Others rely on a handpicked selection to create a sound all their own.
 
We have different styles of music on offer for you - one will surely meet your taste. We invite you to get to know the Gutmann sound.