Bulls, Bears and Ballots
During a presidential election year, investors tend to seek a connection between who wins the White House and which way stocks will go.
As you likely know, the global Coronavirus pandemic induced a bear market sending stocks worldwide into a tailspin.
The S&P 500 [1], a major benchmark representing the largest US stocks, closed down 34% from its highs seen just a few weeks prior [2]. While stocks and other assets were plummeting, many bonds (especially US government bonds) went up in value as the Federal Reserve cut rates and Treasurys became more attractive with their ‘safe haven’ status.
These opposing moves probably caused a disproportionate imbalance: the percentage of stocks in your account may be too low while the percentage of bonds may be too high.
We correct this by performing a “rebalance”.
The primary objective of a rebalancing is that we want to try to maintain the risk profile deemed appropriate for your account. Taking into consideration your risk capacity & tolerance, investment objectives and time horizon, we’d like to try to get back to the proper mix of stocks and bonds going forward.
There are some other objectives as well:
It is possible that your portfolio does not warrant a rebalance and, if so, we will not execute one unnecessarily.
We’re being deliberate in our timing of when we might rebalance your portfolio. We don’t want to trade into a volatile marketplace with wide bid/ask spreads and market prices that are not reflective of the value of the underlying holdings.
With the CARES Act signed into law and the market seemingly beginning to find its footing, we see improving liquidity and better trading conditions with almost every passing day. Naturally, we hope this continues and we will trade into the market when we believe conditions are suitable.
Please know in this unprecedented time that while we respect the limited travel and stay-at-home advisories, our firm is fully functional. All our firm’s members are reachable by phone, email and videoconferencing as we transact business as usual – albeit with social distancing in place.
Please stay safe. Practice social distancing and, as always, we welcome your questions as we all work to get through this together.
Important Notes:
Economic factors, market conditions, and investment strategies will affect the performance of any portfolio and there can be no assurance that a portfolio will match or outperform any particular index or benchmark. The outbreak of COVID-19 has negatively affected the worldwide economy, individual countries, individual companies and the market in general. The future impact of COVID-19 is currently unknown, and it may exacerbate other risks that apply to the Fund.
All Rights Reserved. This post is not to be duplicated or reposted on another platform without the expressed written consent of Shore Point Advisors.
[1] The S&P 500 Index is a stock market index that tracks the values of 500 large-capitalization U.S. companies as determined by S&P Dow Jones Indices, LLC.
[2] Stock Market live Monday: Dow sinks 580 points, virus bill stalls in Senate, Tepper ‘nibbles’, CNBC.com, Monday, Mar 23, 2020; https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/23/stock-market-live-today.html
[3] There is no guarantee that portfolio diversification or rebalancing will guarantee a profit or protect against a loss.
Shore Point Advisors is registered as an investment adviser with the State of New Jersey. Shore Point Advisors only transacts business in states where it is properly registered, or is excluded or exempted from registration requirements. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. There are no assurances that an investor’s portfolio will match or outperform any particular benchmark. Content was prepared by a third-party provider. All information is based on sources deemed reliable, but no warranty or guarantee is made as to its accuracy or completeness. All expressions of opinion reflect the judgment of the authors on the date of publication and are subject to change.
During a presidential election year, investors tend to seek a connection between who wins the White House and which way stocks will go.
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