market correction

In the News: Supply Chains and Yoyos
photo shows a silver yoyo and its string

There has been a lot of talk in the news lately about problems with the supply chain. Fuel shortages, power shortages, microchip shortages, transportation shortages—these days, it seems like there is just not enough to go around.

Listening to dire predictions about how much worse things will get, it is easy to get nervous for the future.

We have been here before, though. Remember the early days of the pandemic? Bare grocery shelves and toilet paper panics. Or the early days of the recovery? Home values shooting up and hardware stores adjusting lumber prices multiple times per day.

For one item after another, we have watched supplies dry up to a trickle—and then come flooding back. Once the initial supply crunch is resolved, quite often other, smaller shortages eventually come back. And eventually go away.

The global pandemic has done a lot to expose the weakness of our supply chains. Sometimes, it seems each one is less like a chain and more like a yoyo spinning up and down, up and down. Maybe the disruptions get a little slower each time, and eventually they will come to rest.

But none of it is new. Commodities have always been cyclical. We hear about chip shortages and gas shortages, but these things happen with some regularity. The disruption of the past year and a half has just sped things up. In the past 30 years, oil has dipped below $40 a barrel at least five times and has peaked above $80 a barrel at least five times.

It is difficult to get too hot and bothered about oil being $80 a barrel when within the last decade it spent multiple years well above $100 a barrel.

What eventually cures our shortages is always the same thing: as long as it is possible to make a buck doing something worth doing, there will be people stepping up to fill that need. When gas supplies are low, oil companies drill new wells. When chip supplies are low, chipmakers build new fabrication plants. When transportation capacity is low, logistics companies buy new trucks. There is a lot of money to be made selling gas and microchips and shipping when things are tight.

New supply does not come online overnight. It can take a long time for supplies to ramp up to meet demand. And by the time they do, the yoyo has so much momentum that it usually overshoots the mark and keeps going the other way. A drought turns into a flood, slowly, but still faster than most people would expect. Supplies dry up again as prices come down and production becomes less profitable. High prices plant the seeds for low prices, which plant the seeds of high prices again.

We have been around this story before—and around, and around, and around again. Clients, if you need to go around it with us, just give us a call.

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In the News: Supply Chains and Yoyos – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services

This text is available at https://www.228Main.com/.

Silver Lining Playbook

© Can Stock Photo / AnglianArt

Recent market action featured normal stock market volatility in a remarkably compressed time period. (We all know which direction the volatility took us, don’t we?)

Some clients see a silver lining in stock market downturns. They are able to do Roth IRA conversions on a more favorable basis. These transactions are taxed on the value transferred from traditional IRA or rollover accounts into Roth IRA accounts.

Think about $60,000 invested that temporarily declines to $50,000 before bouncing back to $60,000. If the conversion happens at the low point, tax is paid on $50,000 but the Roth ends up with $60,000 of assets. This is a way to build after-tax wealth over the long term. If the rules are followed, gains in the Roth are never taxed, even when withdrawn.

By intentionally selecting the specific holdings with the most potential to snap back, an additional edge may be gained. (Of course, we have no guarantees on the selections we make.)

Many of you are looking at the lowest tax brackets in years, due to recent tax reform, changes that are scheduled to disappear in the years ahead. And income tax rates may rise anyway, as the government seeks to deal with record borrowing and national debt.

So the silver lining in the stock market decline is a pair of potential advantages in Roth IRA conversions: we may be converting assets at a temporary market value discount, taxed at temporarily low tax rates.

We have a crystal ball. It does not work. We could be wrong about future tax rates, and nobody knows their own specific future tax situation. And there is no guarantee that depressed investments rise again. We just do the best we can with what we know.

Clients, if you would like to talk about this or anything else, please email us or call.

Content in this material is for general information only and not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. All performance referenced is historical and is no guarantee of future results. All indices are unmanaged and may not be invested into directly.

This information is not intended to be a substitute for specific individualized tax advice. We suggest that you discuss your specific tax issues with a qualified tax advisor.

Traditional IRA account owners should consider the tax ramifications, age and income restrictions in regards to executing a conversion from a Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. The converted amount is generally subject to income taxation.

Burning Up Money

© Can Stock Photo / ancientimages

No doubt you probably noticed the turmoil in the stock market over the past several weeks. You might have assumed, if you watched the stock indexes hit a low of more than 10% below their peak, that some particularly ugly piece of news had hit the market.

If so, you would probably be surprised to hear that the biggest news stories leading to the correction were that the economy was booming and unemployment was at record lows. So why were investors panicking at this seemingly positive news? The answer is inflation.

You see, as the economy grows, increasing wealth leads to increasing demand. This means higher prices–or, in economic terms, inflation. This creates a couple of problems for the stock market. In the long term, rising prices make it harder to maintain economic growth and may contribute to an eventual crash. In the short term, both economic growth and inflation increase the pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates, making bonds and other interest-driven investments more attractive relative to stocks.

We are deeply skeptical of this short-term rationale. While bond investors may salivate at the prospect of higher interest rates in the future, we think this is short-sighted. Tomorrow’s higher interest bonds may sound attractive, but you would be foolish to buy them if the interest rate is going to be even higher the day after. On February 5th, when the stock market was posting headline-grabbing declines fueled by interest rate paranoia, investors were actually buying up bonds–bonds that stood to lose purchasing power as soon as better, higher interest bonds started being issued!

The longer term concern, that inflation may spell the beginning of the end of the current economic boom, is a bigger threat. We have warned for a long time that the Federal Reserve was likely to wind up overshooting the mark on its 2% inflation rate target. We think this is even more likely now that the government has passed a very stimulus-minded tax package. Cutting taxes during the middle of a boom is likely just throwing gasoline on the fire: it is possible we may see some explosive growth, so in the short run we are excited about the market, but in the long run the economy may just burn out that much faster.

Clients, many of you have been in business with us long enough to remember the roller-coaster years we saw around 2007. The dip at the start of February may potentially be forgotten as the market forges on ahead, but it will not be the last one. The roller coaster is coming back, and although we look forward to the ride we will keep a mindful eye for the day we may need to think about getting off. Call us if you have any questions about the market and the broader economic outlook.

The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. All performance referenced is historical and is no guarantee of future results. All indices are unmanaged and may not be invested into directly.

All investing involves risk including loss of principal. No strategy assures success or protects against loss.

The “Crash” of 1987: A Contrarian View

© Can Stock Photo / konradbak

The 30th anniversary of The Crash of 1987, the biggest one day drop in the stock market ever, recently passed. Mainstream commentary made much of the 20+% loss on the day, the panic, the shock, and whether such a drop could happen again.

People sometimes learn the wrong lesson from experience. (In our opinion, many investors learn the wrong lesson.) The so-called crash is another case in point.

First let’s put the event in context. The S&P 500 stock index went from 242 at the beginning of the year to 247 by the end of the year, with some commotion in between1. There was no apparent damage to long term investors when the dust had settled—provided one adopted sensible time horizons by which to judge it.

In fact, the next year saw a gain of 12% in the S&P 500, plus dividends1. The five years following 1987 notched a cumulative gain of 76%, plus dividends. This is why it might make more sense, in our opinion, to refer to The Great Buying Opportunity of 1987.

Those with unproductive perspectives measure the loss in the crash from the high peak the market reached earlier in the year. The S&P had jumped 39% in just a few months, even though interest rates were rising sharply and corporate earnings had stalled. From that frothy peak to the lowest closing price after the ‘crash’ was a drop of 36%1.

Clients, many of you were evidently born with the common sense to know that your perspective on events is a matter of choice. You choose productive, effective ways to consider things. Some of you weren’t born that way, but were able to learn how. Our work is intended for you who may benefit from it, not those who insist on counterproductive investing attitudes and behavior.

We believe the productive way to think about 1987 is as a year where the market saw a modest gain, before rising more significantly in subsequent years. The wealth-corroding way to think of 1987 is as a terrifying rollercoaster with damage so great no one could stay invested. You choose your perspective.

The true lesson of 1987 for effective investors: avoid stampedes in the market. Go placidly amid the noise and haste. That you are able to do this is why we believe you are the best clients in the whole world. Email us or call if you would like to discuss your situation in more detail.

1S&P Dow Jones Indices, http://us.spindices.com/indices/equity/sp-500

The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. All performance referenced is historical and is no guarantee of future results. All indices are unmanaged and may not be invested into directly.

Stock investing involves risk including loss of principal. The payment of dividends is not guaranteed. Companies may reduce or eliminate the payment of dividends at any given time.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index is a capitalization weighted index of 500 stocks designed to measure performance of the broad domestic economy through changes in the aggregate market value of 500 stocks representing all major industries.

All investing involves risk including loss of principal. No strategy assures success or protects against loss.

A 10% Correction is Coming!

canstockphoto2807017

There is an amazing thing about the performance of the stock market this year. Looking at the S&P 500 Stock Index, it has hardly dipped more than a few percent from its peaks. There has been a little wiggling, but far less than usual.

We human beings have a remarkable capacity to get used to current conditions, and expect them to persist. This could make trouble for us when the 10% market correction does eventually come around.

Long time clients know we believe that these market drops can neither be predicted nor traded profitably. Many of you call when the market does drop, seeking to invest in any bargains that appeared. We know how this works!

(Of course, we do not own ‘the market.’ Our holdings—and your account balances—sometimes deviate from the direction of the market. In 2016 we were fond of the difference. 2017 so far, the market is a little ahead of us. The point is, the market wiggles up and down, and our performance relative to the market also moves around.)

Commentator Morgan Housel recently wrote “every past market crash looks like an opportunity, but every future market crash looks like a risk.” Our experience after the 2007-2009 downturn demonstrated the first part of that statement. It is the next market crash that we must be concerned with.

Our research process is focused on finding bargains. We’ve taken steps in many portfolios to dampen volatility by changing holdings. Cash levels are generally higher, too. But none of these things will eliminate the temporary fluctuations that are an integral and necessary part of long term investing.

The market will decline. Our portfolios will decline. These declines will seem like a risk when we are going through them; we may see later that they really were an opportunity. The relative calm we’ve experience recently will give way to more volatile times—we know this, and should not be surprised by it.

We’re working to be in position to profit from opportunities that arise. Clients, if you would like to discuss your situation in greater detail, please email us or call.

The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. All performance referenced is historical and is no guarantee of future results. All indices are unmanaged and may not be invested into directly.

Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal.

A Drop or a Loss?

© Can Stock Photo / jamdesign

Recently a client informed us that another person told her that her primary investment account may be invested too aggressively. We asked what the basis was for that conclusion. The explanation: “If the market corrects, I would lose money.”

Anyone who has followed us for any length of time could probably spot the two questionable ideas contained in those eight words. It is worth discussing, because, in our opinion, getting these ideas right may help our clients build wealth more effectively.

1. There is no “if” about the next market correction, it should be when the market corrects. Why act as if we could avoid corrections when we know they will happen and they cannot be reliably predicted nor traded?

2. Is a drop in the market a loss?

We have many long term clients who have lived through dozens of 3-5-7% drops, a fair number of 10-20% declines known as ‘corrections,’ and three or four bear markets with drops of more than 20% in the major market averages. Yet they are sitting on cumulative gains—account balances in excess of the net amount they invested. One might reasonably ask, “what losses?”

The key to our plan, of course, is remaining on course even in difficult conditions, which we know will happen from time to time. We described our efforts to build a client group with this characteristic in our article Niche Market of the Mind.

It is worth mentioning that much of the conventional wisdom about investing assumes that, indeed, a drop in the market is a loss. Furthermore, since many people behave ineffectively when it comes to investing, the conventional wisdom seems to be that everybody behaves ineffectively—doing the wrong thing at the wrong time, again and again—as if it is inevitable for everyone.

It is almost as if statistics about the average weight and exercise habits of Americans are taken as proof that no group of relatively fit people show up at the gym at 6 AM to work out.

We are grateful to be working with you, a group of clients who are disciplined and fit when it comes to effective wealth-building behavior. If you have questions about this or any other topic, please call or email us.

The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. All performance referenced is historical and is no guarantee of future results.

Broken Clocks and Market Timing

© Can Stock Photo Inc. / Pshenichka

The first quarter of 2016 is drawing to a close, and as of this writing the S&P 500 Index is roughly where it was at the start of the year, hovering a meager half a percent under the December 31 close of 2043.94 after having peaked half a percent higher earlier last week.

One might conclude that it has been a very boring three months for the stock market—we’ve spent 90 days to get back to where we started from. But we’ve had quite a rollercoaster in-between. In the first half of the quarter the S&P dropped about 10%, only to have an equally dramatic bounce back.

We had some calls from worried clients after that drop. (Not many, though—we know our clients, and they know us and our philosophy.) We would certainly like to take credit for having righted the ship and reversing the decline. But the truth of the matter is that there is a lot of random noise in market movements. We believe that we may be able to capitalize on long-term market trends; we do not pretend to be able to predict what the market will do day to day or month to month.

We do know that every once in a while there will be a short-lived 10% correction in the market, so we don’t believe in panicking when the markets take a dip. But we don’t know when, or how long, or how deep a periodic correction will be.

They say that even a broken clock is right twice a day. Market timing often feels the same. Even if you have a deeply held conviction that a market is due for a move, you may have to wait an unpleasantly long time before you turn out to be right. In hindsight market moves seem obvious, and it is tempting to look back and curse having missed the opportunity to sell at a top or buy in at a bottom. But at the time, nobody knew that they were at the top or the bottom. If we could accurately predict when the top or bottom would hit, we wouldn’t be here dispensing financial advice. We’d be sitting on a beach somewhere in the tropics, having rum runners dispensed to us.

Maybe someday we’ll get a better crystal ball that can make those predictions. Until then, we’ll just settle for getting rich the slow way and leave market timing to the gamblers and bookies.

The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.