(RightLine) -- The stock market crash of 1929 is one of the most famous (and infamous) events in the history of Wall Street. Finding an investor who's still around to talk about it isn't easy. Finding one who's still active in the stock market is nearly impossible.
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Meet Albert Gordon. At the ripe age of 107, his investing career has spanned eight decades and shows no signs of stopping. His top stock picks this year have easily outperformed the broader market.
Mr. Gordon knows a thing or two about trading the stock market. As a bond salesman with Goldman Sachs in the 1920's and an influential executive with Kidder, a successful brokerage through much of the 20th century, he dealt with every market climate imaginable - panics, depressions, wars, booms, and malaise. Through it all, he managed to achieve long-term growth with his holdings.
Old age and wisdom go hand-in-hand - especially for someone who's been in the game as long as Mr. Gordon. What words of advice might he have for today's traders?
One lesson would be to focus on valuation when approaching longer-term trading. Selling bonds in the late 1920's, he viewed the soaring stock prices as excessive and unjustified. This contrarian opinion allowed him to emerge from the stock market crash unscathed, putting him in a prime position to reap profits in the aftermath when other market participants were scrambling to recover.
A long-term point of view is something that comes naturally after investing for over 80 years. The huge emotion-driven rallies and sell-off that sometimes hit Wall Street seem like mere blips on the radar when viewed from this perspective. Keeping emotions in check is one of the keys to market success.
When interviewed in November 2006, Mr. Gordon maintained a bearish view of the U.S. investing climate, citing the high amount of national debt. Earlier in his career he found lucrative deals by going into markets such as Japan that were previously untouched. Similarly, he's now focusing on foreign companies in markets with better growth prospects.
In a line of work that's frequently stressful, it's important to find a healthy coping mechanism. For Mr. Gordon, it was exercise. An avid runner into his 80's he even ran in the London marathon. As he could attest, a healthy body facilitates a good mindset for approaching the market.
Mr. Gordon's mindset can be summed up by the fact that at 107, he still takes a long-term approach towards investing. Now that's optimism! He also serves as a firm reminder that stock market trading is for everyone - young and old. Those who profit consistently over the years and decades are able to identify repeated patterns in market behavior and consistently find areas for growth. The right combination of knowledge and discipline, along with the ability to put events into perspective, is all you need for success.
Now if only Mr. Gordon would share his fountain of youth with all of us...
