Do- Diversify your portfolio. This may sound cliché but it is vitally important. Diversification acts as an insulator against the ups and downs of the market. Don't- Try to time the market! Market timing is making investment decisions based on the expectation that the market will go up or down in the short term.
People frequently refer to the stock market as a “casino”, as if they have zero influence over the financial result of their decision(s). However, there are at least two important differences between gambling on slot machines and investing in an actual business, or a collection (portfolio) of businesses: Entitlement and predictability.
A tremendous amount happened this past quarter at least from a geopolitical perspective. As far as the market is concerned nothing significant happened. The DOW opened July at 34,507 and opened on September 30th at 34,467. If you closed your eyes on July 1 and didn’t open them until October 1, you might think the market didn’t move. We all know better than that. The markets moved up, down, and...
Following an explosive 9 month run, small cap stocks slowed their pace of growth allowing large cap stocks to nearly close the gap for the year. Meanwhile, international markets underperformed U.S. markets. This is not surprising. To many other nations, the U.S has had a fairly productive vaccine rollout and therefore many components of the U.S. economy are back to a semblance of normalcy. As international stocks become even cheaper (relative to U.S. stocks), at some point that may present investors with an opportunity.
After a recent phone call from my 21-year-old son, I realized that some things never change. With the advancements in technology, it has never been easier to invest with an account on apps like Robinhood, SoFi, and Stash. Many of my son’s friends (Gen Z) are using these platforms on their quest to get rich quick and retire early. For young inexperienced investors, I equate this to the euphoria around the tech bubble of the 90s or even certain pyramid schemes.
For a long time, many of our portfolios have had a slight bias towards small cap stocks (stocks with a total market value under two billion dollars). Sometimes this bias helps performance and sometimes it hurts. We believe that over the long term, in exchange for a small amount of additional risk, small cap stocks will provide better returns than their large cap counterparts.
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. I have no idea where that idiom originated from but it is perhaps the best and simplest way to describe diversification. Instinctively investors know they should diversify their portfolio and most do this. Having looked at hundreds, if not thousands, of portfolios, I can tell you that diversification amounts to more than just owning multiple funds. A common mistake that investors make when trying to diversify their IRA or 401k is that they, inadvertently, create a portfolio that has the illusion of diversification. Let me explain.
It feels as if 2020 produced enough headlines for a decade. A global pandemic, mass protests, an emotionally charged election and some dude named the “Tiger King” are just a few of the many stories that kept our interest. Yet, here it is the second month into 2021, and Gamestop is dominating the headlines. Gamestop, which was once a place to buy a video game, became the topic of discussion at every dinner table, group text and social media platform last week.