Markets Don't Care About Your Politics
If you're investing based on political biases, you're doing it wrong.
As Elizabeth Warren seems to be the Dem front-runner for now, I'm seeing a lot of Warren will be bad for the stock market commentary. This of course was a big fear ahead of President Obama's inauguration too. A little history;
- LBJ--equities did well
- Nixon-- equities did very badly
- Carter--equities did very badly
- Reagan--equities did very well
- Bush 41-- equities did badly
- Clinton-- equities did very well
- Bush 43-- equities did badly
- Obama-- there was the same fear about him as Warren and they skyrocketed
- Trump-- equities have been stagnant for about 21 months
- Since Trump's inauguration, the S&P 500 is up 29%. At this point in Obama's first term it was up 48%.
The notion that one party is better or worse for stocks is absurd. The market has an up year 72% of the time. It has done very well under both parties and done very poorly under both parties. The point is to leave your political biases out of your stock market participation, the party in office means nothing. Whether stocks do well or do poorly under the next president will have nothing to do with their party.
Before anyone adds 1+1 and gets eleven, I've been a Libertarian for many years and I dislike both of the major parties.
Whenever the stock market starts to rollover again, regardless of who is in the White House or whatever "causes" it, I will do the same thing for clients that I always do, start to take defensive action slowly as true bear markets give several months before they hit hardest. Where investing is concerned, the things that matter most are staying disciplined and not succumbing to emotion.
The picture in the header of this post is Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde National Park and since this was kind of a heavy post, a bonus picture of a BLM wildland fire truck (the numbering indicates it's a Type 3 but it looks like a Type 4) in Moab, UT.
Disclaimer: The information, statements, views, and opinions included in this publication are based on sources (both internal and external sources) considered to be reliable, but no ...
more