What a night!  Like many of you, I spent last night watching the developing story about our election.  The final tally will reflect that more than 120 million Americans participated in an orderly election process, which produced a surprising Brexit-style statement about change of direction and leadership that we will be working to interpret for the next several weeks.

Summary

In the late evening the news folks began noting that the stock market futures were plummeting, but by morning there had been a nearly full recovery back to the levels at which we closed yesterday. Emotional reactions can be dramatic and short term.  This demonstrates the importance of riding through the volatility and maintaining focus on the sound disciplines we have built our portfolios around.  As I write this, the market (DJIA) is actually up almost 150 points from yesterday.

Investment Climate

Our investment strategies are driven by disciplined assessments of the fundamental strength and direction of our economy and detailed analysis of many indicators of the future strength of the jobs markets, inflationary pressures, corporate profits, international trade, etc.

We aren’t short term traders and wouldn’t buy and sell stocks on the basis of speculation about market changes resulting from the election.  So, we do not plan on making wholesale changes to our accounts in the next days or weeks, but will carefully and thoughtfully evaluate the emergence of informed thought and analysis about the economy, interest rates, impact of regulatory changes, tax proposals, domestic and international policies.  We will continue to position your investments appropriately, and opportunistically, within the context of your individual investment policy statements.

There is change coming.  Substantial tax law changes and spending changes that have been described during the presidential campaign could only take shape and be implemented through collaborative actions of Congress and the President.  That will take time.  Other policy and regulatory changes could be rolled out more quickly.

To be sure, we have entered into a time of heightened unpredictability, and therefore volatility.  We will be watching for specific developments in these areas and incorporating those changes into our investment strategies.  There will be promising investment opportunities to identify and understand.

More Communication Coming Ahead

We are on the job and working to ensure that, within the guidance you have given us in your investment policy statement, your portfolio will continue to be positioned to benefit from future changes, and that your welfare is protected.   We will send out additional updates as the transition process begins to take shape.

Remember that your advisors are here for you.  If you would like to meet or talk with someone, please call or email.  We are always eager to talk with you.