Special Note: Just a reminder that we offer tax preparation through our tax team at Summit Tax Services/Heemer Klein. If you’d be interested in a quote, as we’re very competitive, please give us a call at 586-459-5340. Our goal is to make tax time easier on you.
2022 will go down as one of the hardest years for the markets. Both the bond and stock markets had massive drops. The Bloomberg US Aggregate bond index has been negative five times since it was created 45 years ago, and the most significant decline before this year was 2.9%. This year it lost nearly 15%.
Growth Stocks Experienced Large Losses in 2022
Growth stocks got hit especially hard, with Tesla down 70%, Meta, Facebook’s parent company, down 64%, and even Amazon was down 51%. The larger indexes also had a rough year, with the S&P 500 dropping 19.4% and more than 20% below its record high, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 33.1%. Overall, it was the worst year since 2008 for stocks and arguably one of the worst years ever since both stocks and bonds got hurt by rising interest rates and inflation.
New Environment Calls For New Strategies
In 2022, we did everything we could to improve our processes and our performance. We have added new data feeds, new research companies, and new strategies to our daily managed portfolio process. We would love for you to come by the office for a review meeting so we can show you some of the new techniques if you’re interested. We used these new tools this month.
In December, Santa Claus did not arrive as the S&P 500 was negative 6.3% and the Nasdaq was down 8.73%, while our daily actively managed portfolios were actually positive. We encourage you to look at your statements to see the overall performance and give us a call if you’d like to discuss it.
Adapting to a Challenging Environment
As you know, we have many tools in our toolbox, including the ability to purchase investments that profit when the stock market goes down. This is called hedging. Our ultimate goal is to make money, so we’re using what we believe to be all the appropriate tools in our toolbox to accomplish that goal potentially. We anticipate that the US economy and Global economy could possibly dip into a recession, so we will continue to hedge to profit from the environment and watch inflation, the Ukraine war, the Federal Reserve, corporate earnings, and the markets like a hawk. This is why we manage our active portfolios daily. Our goal for 2023 is to adapt to the challenging environment and have a very profitable year.
Schedule a Review Meeting
We’d love to have a review meeting with you to discuss investments, retirement income planning, college planning for kids or grandkids, tax preparation, health insurance, including Medicare supplemental and prescription drug plans, and various other financial planning topics. Please contact our office at (586) 226-2100 to schedule a meeting today!
Keep Us Informed of Financial Changes
If you’ve had any changes to your income, job status, marital status, 401K options, address, or any other financial changes, please get in touch with us right away. We hope you and your family have a wonderful, safe, and healthy start to 2023!
Happy New Year to you and your family!
Sincerely,
with contributions from Robert Wink, James Wink, Zachary Bachner, and James Baldwin
Notes & Disclaimer: Stock market indices, like the S&P 500 Index, are unmanaged groups of securities considered to be representative of the stock market in general or subsets of the market, and their performance is not reflective of the performance of any specific investment. Investments cannot be made directly into an index. Historical returns data are calculated using data provided by sources deemed to be reliable, but no representation or warranty, expressed or implied, is made as to their accuracy, completeness, or correctness. This information is provided “AS IS” without any warranty of any kind. All historical returns data should be considered hypothetical. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
This communication is only intended for recipients who reside in states where our agents are licensed to sell these products. Investment advisory services are offered through Summit Financial Consulting, LLC, an SEC registered investment advisor. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Summit Financial Consulting Investment Advisor Representatives do not render tax, legal, or accounting advice. Insurance products and services are offered through Summit Financial Consulting, LLC. Note: Please update Summit Financial Consulting, LLC, if your investment objectives have changed or if the personal or financial information previously provided has changed. The investment advisory disclosure document that describes Summit Financial Consulting investment advisory services account is provided to you annually. Please consult Summit Financial Consulting for a copy of this document should you need an additional copy. All guarantees are subject to the claims paying ability of the issuing insurance company. Past performance cannot predict future performance. It is not possible to invest directly in an index. The Sherman Group, LLC is not associated with Summit Financial Consulting, LLC in any way, other than a research sharing partnership. Back testing is more heavily scrutinized than any other type of investment analysis because it can be updated to take advantage of past data. The algorithms and trading signals that we receive from the Sherman Group, LLC were created using back testing with the goal of creating a sustainable research process. We have reviewed data from the entire 20 year period which was mostly back tested, and have also personally reviewed the live data for the past 5 years and feel comfortable with it, but we encourage you to meet with us and ask questions so you are fully informed on what we plan to do with your investment assets at TD Ameritrade. It is important to look at fees, taxable repercussions, and trading frequency when looking at a rate of return number. There is no perfect system or research feed, and Sherman Group, LLC has had both longer term and short-term periods where they lost money. Investing involves risk, and these portfolios are no exception.