Asset Rotation: The Demise of Modern Portfolio Theory and the Birth of an Investment Renaissance

CHAPTER 8CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTUREBuilding Your Own Asset Rotation Portfolio

“Je pense, donc je suis”—translated into English, “I think, therefore I am.” Perhaps most often remembered today for what on the surface may appear to be a rather elementary act of deduction, seventeenth-century French philosopher René Descartes has long been regarded as the Father of Modern Philosophy.

This famous quote, found in part IV of his 1637 publication, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One’s Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences, set the tone for what would become one of the most influential works in the history of modern philosophy and in the development of scientific reasoning. In this literary treatise, Descartes laid out his philosophical approach for the evolution of natural sciences and established a process by which knowledge could be attained.

Descartes began his line of reasoning by first rejecting everything currently held to be true, so that one could assess the world from a fresh perspective, devoid of any preconceived notions that might otherwise impair one’s perceptions. Descartes was mindful to reject his senses, believing them to be inconclusive and unreliable. Rather, he attempted to arrive at a fundamental set of principles that one can know to be true without a doubt, based solely on deduction. “I think, therefore I am” was his rudimentary illustration of this philosophy, which according to Descartes, served as the only appropriate method for acquiring ...