Van Konynenburg: Volatility Is Our Friend

LOS ANGELES—“I think volatility is our friend,” asserted Michael Van Konynenburg at the Allen Matkins View from the Top conference earlier this week. Van Konynenburg opened the conference with an economic update, where he talked about the recent volatility in the market and the Fed‘s decision not to raise interest rates. He explained that some volatility is good for the economy because it moderates growth and helps maintain balance.

However, when really diving into some of the volatility issues we have seen over the past 30 days, especially in the Chinese market, Van Konynenburg said that the volatility reported was exaggerated. “We think that the volatility has been exaggerated by the fact that this happened in late August and by the fact the China tends to be opaque,” he said, adding that the ability to take risk is much less today under Dodd Frank.