Here we are...five months later

The post-election feel-good moment has come and gone. As mentioned in an earlier post, the influence of US elections on stock market returns (counting from the first week of November) is dubious at best. Irrespective of party affiliation, incoming administrations will change policy (or perceptions) sufficiently to give investors something or the other to worry about. In the real world, there is no free lunch of course. If it's not tariff wars (the current worry) it was "transitory" inflation in the Biden term; take your pick.

So, what's an investor to do? Stay focused on the long term and balance your allocations such that asset class returns for the year are commensurate with the dollars committed to each class (as a percent of your total portfolio). It's unlikely to be perfect but you can see how each class is situated on the FinDosh efficient frontier chart for 2024 below. Clearly the two dots significantly above the line (Large-cap Growth and Large-cap Value) and below (US Treasuries and Global High Yield) require attention because both relative under-performance and over-performance can be a problem in the next go-round. Because as recent market action proves: valuations do matter.

From left to right: UTL, ALT, IDM, MSC, RTS, LCG, GHY, UST, LCV

Till next time...