Finance looks more and more like a great global game, a risiko, a domino, but also a sophisticated game of bridge. He is convinced of it Alessandro Andreoli, financial advisor long-term (first with Mediobanca-Esperia, now with Pictet) e president of the main Bridge club in Bologna. In fact, according to Andreoli "the qualities that are needed on the markets are the same as those needed by the good bridge player: logic, speed, coldness".
Doctor Andreoli, can we take advantage of this comparison and explain to us how to choose a good financial advisor?
Trust, references, human relationships are all important elements to be taken into account. But if you want to sit at the Stock Exchange table, to play in tandem with someone who gives you good chances of winning, make sure your banker, trader or manager is a calm, logical person, capable of picking up signals and taking very quickly your own decisions. Someone who works on probabilities and has adequate emotional control.
Are the markets, apparently cold, i.e. made up of numbers, forecasts and graphs, actually beating hearts?
Oh yes, because behind every action there is a person. The markets, on average, aren't very intelligent, because those who operate often do it impulsively, on the wave of rumors, instinctively following the behavior of the masses. Anyone who does so risks losing good opportunities and also compromising future earnings. The cards that the player has in his hand are not always good, yet he can bring home a good game losing much less than all the others, he can even win if he plays the right card at the right time, he can win against an opponent with greater strength , raising the stakes and snatching a bid from him to the point where he no longer has the courage to go. Here, in this way, bridge helps us understand how to move on the markets as well.
In addition to that of savers, there are other matches in progress, between states, between speculators, between agencies: in your opinion, what cards does Italy have in hand at the moment?
Italy has no bad cards. He has begun a positive journey and with some strong choices he can make up a lot of lost ground. Of course the recession puts optimism at risk, but I am confident that it will succeed. These crises also perform a positive function because they force politics to take steps that it would always like to postpone. To stay at bridge, every now and then you have to make an empty round, let your opponents catch you, to win the hand. As the song says sometimes “you die a little to be able to live…”. In short, you can lose something at a time, to gain more at a later time.
In recent months we have witnessed many challenges, played on the razor's edge: have we gone too far?
There was a moment in which it seemed that Berlusconi was playing a game against the world, trying to postpone almost all the choices that were asked of us, perhaps in the belief that Germany and France would never make us fail, because our failure it was the failure of the euro. Then he did the right thing and made way for a player everyone liked more. It was good and let's hope that everything goes right, but unlike what happens in a bridge game, we will never have proof, we will never know what would have happened if we continued on that path.
And will the Monti government let us win the tournament?
Professor Monti has a better image than his predecessor and an excellent international reputation. However, his partners are the parties, in the sense that the measures adopted by the Government must in any case meet with their consent. There are obligatory actions for growth and for the fight against tax evasion that need time and discussion. However, in the immediate future we had to produce numbers and not talk and we did. In the Italian team, or rather in the European one, we can also include Mario Draghi and his ECB government, a great player, who also bodes well for the coming months. Will the euro make it? I'm not sure. The only small consolation is that we'll know soon enough. We are in the final stages of this difficult game.
