With the Motley Full Money Extra, I'm Chris Hill.

With just a couple weeks left in 2020, it's fair to say this has been an unusual year for

investors.

When you think back to how much stocks fell in March and April, it's almost hard to believe

that the S&P 500 is on track to finish the year up around 10%.

Of course, now the question a lot of people are asking is when's the next downturn?

And that is a question Howard Marx does not want to hear.

Marx is the co-founder of Oak Tree Capital, one of the biggest money management firms in

the world.

In the fall of 2018, he spent a little time talking with my colleague Bill Mann and

shared why the word when can be a dangerous one for investors.

It should be clear by now to everyone that the swings in popularity are unpredictable.

And if they are, then most forecasts are not going to work.

So the next concept is that people say to me, okay, when will the market turn down?

And I never answer a question that starts with the word when.

In investment business, sometimes we know what's going to happen.

We never know when.

And so I would dispense with that immediately.

You must accept the ambiguity in the situation and accept the need to live with uncertainty.

And that's why in the book, I say there are certain words that every good investor should

drive out of his vocabulary.

Things like never, always, must, can't, has to.

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