Finding Your Fiduciary Financial Advisor
When you are selecting or retaining a financial advisor, how do you know if you are making the best choice?
In third-quarter markets that represented a second consecutive quarter of remarkable overall gains, what stock outshone all the others in the S&P 1500 Composite Index?
Zoom? Apple? Netflix? Nope, none of these, or any of the other trendy FAANG stocks (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google’s parent company Alphabet). Not Tesla, either.
It was Tupperware, up a jaw-dropping 345% for the quarter.
“Of course,” you might reason. “Everyone’s cooking at home this year. That makes sense.”
But consider this: Tupperware’s remarkable quarter ramped up most dramatically in late August, after steep, double-digit declines in each of the three previous quarters.
So, feel free to collect more of those sturdy little lid-burping containers, but remember: Trying to load up on the market’s next big hit based on recent returns is more likely to detract from than contribute to achieving your personal financial goals.
That’s because future returns don’t hinge on what has just happened, or even on what is expected to happen next. Rather, as Dimensional Fund Advisors explains, prices change when the unexpected occurs:
“For most investments and most investment horizons — a month, a year, five years, even ten years — the realized return is driven far more by the unexpected return than the expected return.”
This applies to surprises like Tupperware, as well as to the supposedly unstoppable FAANG darlings of our day.
In fact, the more popular a big growth-oriented company becomes, the harder it often is for it to keep exceeding everyone’s sky-high expectations. To continue outperforming its popular benchmark, it must continue to deliver bigger, better, ever more pleasant surprises. Eventually a fresh competitor steps into the ring, and the cycle begins anew.
Overall, this is how markets grow, even as the individual players come and go.
Have you ever noticed how the hotshots in your favorite action-adventure shows rarely need to defend against more than one or two challengers at a time? Even when our champion is way outnumbered, the individual attacks arrive in implausibly orderly fashion. Otherwise, our heroes wouldn’t stand a fighting chance.
Pundits often suggest markets are subject to an equally implausible universe, where there’s always an orderly set of reasons for why “X” is about to soar, or “Y” is about to fall. In real-life markets, that’s just not how it works. Everything happens all at once, all the time:
In short, investors don’t stand a chance at guessing when and from where the market’s next helping hand or painful punch is going arrive. This is why we continue to recommend positioning your portfolio to harness the power of markets’ broad expected outcomes, rather than their never-ending torrent of erratic incidents.
How are you holding up in this extraordinary year? As always, let us know if you’d like to revisit where you stand or consider your next best financial moves. We can’t predict the future but we do know one thing: We’re on your side. Let us know how we can help. You can reach us anytime at (732) 876-3777 or info@shorepointadvisors.com.
This post was prepared and first distributed by Wendy J. Cook.
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.
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