Historically, the most severe market downturns followed periods of low volatility, high earnings reports, positive GDP growth and bullish sentiment.
Amid rumblings that the long-running bull market is due for a downturn, many investors may be pondering the wisdom of getting out of the markets. As tempting as this may be, consider that this is the epitome of market timing — a strategy generally discouraged for long-term investors.1 [Read more…]
U.S. stock markets were enjoying an eighth consecutive year of a bull market until volatility toward the end of 2018 erased all of the past year’s gains.1 In times like this, as share prices continue to bounce back and forth on a day-to-day basis, investors close to or in retirement often transition to more conservative investments. One option is the municipal bond market.
The lower the bond quality, the higher the yield tends to be, but as with any investment, choosing the appropriate holding depends on your individual retirement strategy. [Read more…]
Jim Byrd and Biff Hamel of Safe Harbor Financial Services, LLC host Safe Investing in the New Economy on WABF 1480 AM radio, FM Talk 106.5 radio and Fox News radio 710 WNTM. Listen weekly to the show on the radio, or plug into the podcast on iTunes. This week’s discussion covers retirement planning with information about various types of annuities compared to other investments.
After a severe fall-off in prices last week, we had one of the strongest one-day rebounds of the year this week on 10/16/18 with a rise of about 500 points. Many think this is the adjustment the stock market needed to continue its growth, but not even the experts agree. Do we know if the adjustment over? William Watts of MarketWatch Magazine quotes Jeff deGraaf, chairman of Renaissance Macro Research, who says no, “a big one-day stock market rebound doesn’t mean blue skies ahead.” [Read more…]
Many people have never heard of the October Effect. Yet, it’s almost as well-known as the September Effect, another theory about market performance based on superstition. But what is it?
According to Investopedia:
The October effect is a theory that stocks tend to decline during the month of October. The October effect is considered mainly to be a psychological expectation rather than an actual phenomenon as most statistics go against the theory.
Prepared for Safe Harbor Financial by Sterling Capital Management.
We at Sterling Capital Management are engaged in three key support areas: providing custom asset allocation frameworks, selecting high-quality investment managers and constructing well-diversified portfolios. Importantly, of course, we remain engaged every day in the ongoing monitoring and periodic rebalancing of those portfolios over time.
Today we are pleased to provide a review of global financial markets during the second quarter of 2018, to reflect on changes we made to our portfolios during the quarter, and to update our current positioning and outlook. [Read more…]
