Investment lessons from August's mayhem

SEPTEMBER is the worst month for markets, historically, though compared to this August's turmoil, an average 1.1 per cent drop in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index seems tame.

That's the average performance for September going back to 1927, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. In case the past month's volatility was just a warm-up, you might want to reflect on the power of some basics the tumult brought to light.

You could think of them as investing mantras for volatile markets.