I often field this question from clients around election season. I find that everyone has different motivations for it, as well. Some clients are understandably concerned about their retirement savings being negatively affected by a change (or sometimes a continuation) in leadership. However, almost equally, other people are excited about the growth opportunities and policy changes that a presidential election could bring.
Well, that was a year to remember! I won’t spend too much time talking about 2020 as we are all looking forward to moving on. However, it may be worthwhile to do a short recap of what happened to markets and how they concluded in 2020.
It is no secret that 2020 is an election year. It is hard to escape all the buzz. We are constantly bombarded with opinions from social media, TV and radio. In this article, I would like to focus on facts; facts about how markets have performed historically during election years. I will do my best to set my opinions aside so we can take an honest look at what history can tell us about election years. I think the best way to do this is to ask (and answer) additional questions. Here we go!
Here we are nearing the last quarter of 2019 and there is no lack of things for capital markets to be upset about. Whether it is trade tensions with China, an inverted yield curve, or the markets reacting to the latest tweet from our POTUS, I find myself fielding the same question from both existing and prospective clients. “What does the future hold?” (or some form of that). Unfortunately, my crystal ball is broken but my answer these days boils down to this: volatility.