One of the several risk-oriented messages we hope has resonated with readers of our commentaries over the last year is that we have maintained a strong belief that the absence of volatility in equity markets did not in any way diminish the potential for volatility. Today’s turn of trend is a forceful reminder that markets can and likely will turn negative at times. These shifts can be abrupt, and they may arrive with no obvious catalysts. They may prove ephemeral or may herald a longer-term downtrend. Today’s result was quick to form, and we’ve read no singular explanation for its occasion. Unsettling for sure, it still was far from the worst seen in history. And though one may wish to turn and run for fear of more to come, it may not portend an extended decline. Longer-term goals perhaps better served, the plunge represents an opportunity for investors to revisit comfort with interim market losses via a discussion with a trusted advisor.

Download PDF: 020518 SAM Market Update

With the equity market plunge the talk of the trade over the first week in February, pundits offered a diversity of explanations as to why stock prices had turned so suddenly and a range of expectations for what’s to come. Though many pointed to the surge in interest rates as a reason for the downdraft in equities, less discussed was the impact on the rate shifts to fixed income investors. Though the sharp decline on February 5 led to a flight to relative safety in bonds, we acknowledge that the recent spike in yields still has negatively impacted fixed income returns in the near term. Even so, we continue to welcome higher rates as both a signal of a more properly functioning economy and as means for more fruitful long-terms returns for bond investors.

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To call the past half-decade of domestic equity markets gains robust is assuredly an understatement, with such a strong and even-tempered march higher rare to uniqueness in history. The centers of investor attention, global central banks maintain steady and resolute control over modest shifts in monetary policy, while global macroeconomic dynamics remain firmly on the side of positive. Investors seem devoid of undue stress that errors in judgement or errant drifts from trend will disrupt the present lack of tension. Still, with caution sourced from history fraught with storms succeeded by such calm, we’ll note that the future holds equivalent potential to delight and disappoint. While we welcome a new year already off to a strong start, we will remain vigilant of shifts relevant to our portfolio positioning and offer the friendly reminder that peace and patience with market exposure is unique to the individual and well-worth regular revisits with trusted advisors.

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Market peaks may seem particularly frightening. Like the crest of a roller coaster, they may incite panicked concern that the only course from here is down. Unlike roller coasters, though, such anxiety is unattached from observable truth. While we can see the coaster track, there is no rule in investing that determines future trajectories. Nonetheless, we may find comfort in market history. Though the answers to “by how much?” and “for how long?” only may be determined in hindsight, we may use market history to show probabilities of future outcomes given starting circumstances. For those wary of the fact that December 2017 marked yet another peak for the S&P 500 Index, this month we look to provide detail as to what the future held for past market peaks in hopes that these data will prove comforting support for a chosen level of market exposure.

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As the year comes to a close, prognostications for 2018 already are filling up our inboxes. We hope to spare readers another choice of whom to believe. Any meaningfully specific views we might share are no more likely to come true than the various others we’ll read over the next few weeks. The question on many minds, of course, is, “how will my portfolios perform next year?” We can only be abundantly honest and suggest that it’s impossible to know in absolute terms. Instead, we think a better idea would be to establish a level of ease with a range of market outcomes and align portfolios such that they might fall within that zone of comfort. Though the if-we-only-had’s are somewhat unavoidable, acknowledging potential fears and regrets in advance may leave us better off in the longer run and more relaxed in between.

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To date, the U.S. equity market has recovered from all major and minor downturns. Even so, a time will come again when we are in the middle of an extended downturn. That presents a conundrum: How do we prepare otherwise risk-tolerant individuals to remain in markets that have treated them badly? We think the answer includes regular reminders about past market volatility as well as the illustration of the idea that the achievement of long-term gains may well require enduring stretches of heightened market volatility and extended declines. In this month’s commentary, we seek to revisit the worst of what we’ve experienced over the past few decades. Our intention is to remind readers about past market tumult and those subsequent recoveries. The upshot is that our investment time horizon is an important consideration when estimating our tolerance for market risk.

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With few grand shifts in themes over the past three months, global investible markets provided reasonably generous returns for the inherent risks they present. Solid gains seen across the board, broad-market investors may have been pleased with the results, driven by coordinated global macroeconomic growth and durable corporate fundamental strength. It seems many continue to believe great risks lie just around the corner, and that markets will turn quickly and furiously once those risks come into view. With more than a few major market meltdowns in our mental history books, we know there are reasons to be both optimistic and vigilant. But, such always is the case, in our view. That thinking driving our approach to investment management, we continue to recommend careful review of tolerance for market risk. The intention of such reviews is to provide a source of confidence that, whatever path markets will take, we may participate in a manner appropriate to our individual goals for growth and appetites for volatility.

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Managing client investments since 2007, Statera Asset Management[1] has generated nearly a decade’s-worth of investment management results. Chronicled in a series of individual total return histories, called composites, those past results may be viewed as representative of the market-relative performance of our style of investing. While not necessarily indicative of what returns we may expect to see in the future, we present our composites as demonstrative of the virtues of our investment philosophy and methodology.

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[1] Statera Asset Management is a division of Signature Resources Capital Management, LLC.

Risk is as much a part of investing as is return. Two sides of the same coin. In many cases, it is likely that individual tolerance for market risk will wane over time. Often due to age-induced pragmatism, we might like our portfolios to become less volatile as our demands for the security of the amount of those funds we have managed to accumulate grows. A progression in portfolio exposures from higher to lower overall expected portfolio risk can be labelled a “glidepath.” This glidepath expresses the past and potential future mix of exposures in the portfolio in order to set expectations for relative potential risk and return. In this month’s commentary, using the more recent past performance of U.S. equity and fixed income investments as a guide, we seek to show the relative potential risk and return impact of incorporating a glidepath into an investment process.

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All the talk about record market highs makes for a bit of discomfort. It can only be down from here, right? In truth, we can never be sure what the markets will do tomorrow, next week or next year. That in mind, we believe the proper approach seeks to invest according to an individual’s investment time horizon and comfort with market risk. With longer time horizons, in particular for those with continued future expected savings, even substantial near- and medium-term downturns may be resolved with time. And the prospects of missing out on additional gains may be seen as just as harmful to potential future wealth.

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