During the past week, we have seen a return to the volatility trends that were prevalent through much of 2022. The past two trading days have been especially active, with the S&P 500 going negative on the year for a brief period on Monday before ultimately turning positive.
In 1929, at the height of an economic boom in America, Joseph Kennedy Sr. (father of JFK) was working as a stockbroker on Wall Street. As the story goes, Joseph was walking around when he decided to sit down for a shoeshine. While polishing his shoes, the young worker gave Joseph some of his favorite stock picks. When Joseph heard the shoeshine boy giving out stock tips, he figured the party was about to end, and it was time to get out of the market. Joseph proceeded to exit his positions in the market and bought short positions that bet on the market going down.
One of the best things about markets is that they don’t have memories. They don’t
remember what happened last week or last year. They don’t even remember what
happened a minute ago. Prices change based on what’s happening right now and what
people think will happen in the future.
People have memories. Markets don’t. And that’s a good thing.
The start to a new year was a welcome sight for investors. On the heels of a couple of very positive years, 2022 presented a year of struggle across every asset classes.
In what has become a recurring theme, Congress pushed through a new piece of tax legislation in the closing days of 2022. SECURE 2.0, named after its predecessor SECURE Act, brought with it over 100 changes to taxation and retirement plans. Many of these changes involve complex rules and restrictions for retirement plan administrators, and a limited amount for individuals to be concerned with.
On November 8, US voters will cast their ballots for all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 seats in the Senate. Many investors are concerned with the effect of election results. Do past results suggest a useful strategy to deal with election-year uncertainty?
The answer is yes.
Over the past couple of years we have started working with an online bank called Flourish. This is an online bank that works specifically with financial advisors. A few of our clients have already started using this platform to hold their emergency savings. Until now the rates offered have mirrored those at Ally and Capital One fairly closely. But that has now changed.
As we enter the final months of 2022, we are greeted with yet another election cycle. This version, much like its predecessors, has led to an increase in client inquiries about market ramifications relating to the results.
Back in April we wrote about an investment vehicle known as I Bonds. These Treasury Bonds, which are tied to inflation, started to offer higher yields than anything you could find on the open market.
With high levels of inflation still being reported these bonds are still a sound investment, but likely for a limited period of time.
President Biden announced on Monday that the application for student loan forgiveness is now open. A reminder on the restrictions around this forgiveness can be found on our post from September, or on the application webpage.
Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending a conference in California. This conference was a lot different than many of the conferences I had attended before. During a normal finance conference the attendees will bounce around between windowless conference rooms, wear business casual attire, and eat subpar chicken. This conference was set on a boardwalk overlooking the ocean with local food trucks coming in to cater. It’s safe to say that getting to walk around in flip flops on the sand was a nice change of pace!
Unfortunately, the picturesque weather was the complete opposite of what was going on in the financial world.
You've probably heard by now that the government plans to forgive federal student loans for roughly 20 million Americans.