Billionaire investor David Booth: Long-term investors aren't panicking

Yahoo Finance
Yesterday

Chaotic Trump policy isn't getting long-term investors down in the dumps yet.

"No," Dimensional Fund Advisors founder and chair David Booth said on Yahoo Finance's Catalysts when asked if heightened market volatility this month is causing investors to panic (video above). "What we have are clients that are really long-term investors and frequently call up and say, look, let's chat about you — you don't need to talk to me. I know what you're going to say. And you know, I'm in this for the long haul."

Booth — worth an estimated $2.4 billion — is out with a new documentary called "Tune Out the Noise," which pulls back the curtain on how he created Dimensional Fund Advisors through a focus on long-term investing discipline. 

Listen: Trump tariffs may trigger stagflationary shock

It also explores his career in applying the finance theory he learned at the University of Chicago’s business school (now named after him) to the world of investment management.

Founded in 1981, Dimensional today is a global investment manager with more than $777 billion in assets under management. 

The firm is seen as helping to create one of the world's first index funds in the 1970s. He launched the first passively managed small company investing strategies in the early 1980s. 

Booth has signed the Giving Pledge, joining other billionaires such as Microsoft (MSFT) co-founder Bill Gates and Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B) CEO Warren Buffett in promising to give away the majority of their wealth to charity.

Booth's documentary comes as the market is doing everything but tuning out the noise as a barrage of tariff news and softening economic data hit.  

The S&P 500 Index (^SPX) has fallen back to levels before the US election in November. The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) and Magnificent 7 are both now in technical correction territory, or off 10% or more from their highs. Momentum stock darlings Nvidia (NVDA) and Tesla (TSLA) are down 26% and 45%, respectively, from their all-time highs.

Markets are recalibrating growth expectations for companies in a world of Trump tariffs, which could feature a recession and high levels of inflation, pros say.

Watch: How Hasbro CEO is tackling Trump tariffs

Booth thinks ignoring the political noise — while tough — is paramount.

"One of the interesting things about studying the behavior of the stock market over long periods of time is you can't find much connection between which party is in power, which Congress is leading the way," Booth said. 

"It's always helpful to remind people how markets work. These are buyers and sellers coming together, and they don't trade unless each side thinks they got a good deal. The way I view it is every day prices are getting set at levels that induce people to come in to invest. If prices were too high, they wouldn't invest."

Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email brian.sozzi@yahoofinance.com.

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