For starters, let’s take a look at what’s been happening in the markets during the first week of December 2007. We thought investors looking at fundamentals were busiest on December 4, but by the time the 7th rolled around, there was less trading and we noticed signals that people were hedging and looking to mitigate risk. What does this mean for investor relations professionals? Something we haven’t observed since early fall: many investors are doing what traders are doing, and trying to make sure their equity positions are safe. Nobody managing a fund wants to lose everything on a Friday.

Now let’s get back to investor relations: this is a field that takes a great deal of time and effort to understand. It’s not a weekend project. If you want to grasp why equities do what they do, it helps to consider the immediate and far-off implications of actions and situations. The whole investor relations field needs to adapt to another way of thinking. Only when IR starts to consider the here and now can it really begin to figure out answers to bigger questions related to how or why stocks act the way they do.

Markets are unforgiving, tough places: you can’t assume your investors are looking to study and buy into your strategies for the distant future. That won’t get you too far in today’s markets… except, maybe, out of a public listing because you don’t fit in.

Markets are unforgiving, tough places: you can’t assume your investors are looking to study and buy into your strategies for the distant future. That won’t get you too far in today’s markets… except, maybe, out of a public listing because you don’t fit in.

Investor relations officers will probably feel better about their work -- and their immediate prospects -- if they are flexible enough to look at the incredible irrationality of how society and markets behave. They’ll rest easier, and their chief executive and financial officers probably will, too.