Investing Caffeine

The Rocket Science of Investing – Armageddon Yet to Arrive

January 3, 2022 at 3:42 pm 2 comments

In the face of an incredibly scary global pandemic, the stock market completed a phenomenal year (S&P 500 rocketed +27%) closing at a new all-time monthly record high, after also posting incredible results in 2020 (+16%) and 2019 (+29%). Naturally, the follow-on question I get most is, “What about next year?” And to this question, I annoyingly provide the same answer as the most successful long-term investor of all-time, Warren Buffett, “I have no idea.”

But with that said, despite lacking the skill of 100% clairvoyance, my investment firm Sidoxia Capital Management and our strategies have performed quite well over the long-run for numerous reasons. As it turns out, the power of compounding, coupled with low-cost, tax-efficient investing can produce quite spectacular results. Throw in some good stock picking, and that is frosting on a cake recipe of success. Thank you Amazon.com Inc. +5,544%, Apple Inc. +2,394%, and Alphabet Inc. 880%, among many other fruitful investments since Sidoxia’s inception in 2008.

Lessons Learned Over 30 Years

I’ve been doing this thing called investing for about three decades now and I’ve learned a few things over the years, most prominently that investing is not rocket science. Warren Buffett has correctly described investing as similar to dieting. In other words, both are easy to understand but difficult to execute because they require discipline.

If you want your investments to succeed, consider some of these investing nuggets:

• Invest for the Long-Run: Markets move in all directions, but if you can avoid myopia and short-termism, you will be much better positioned for investment success.

• Avoid Investment Fads: Invest where you get the most bang for your buck – stick to sound investments selling at reasonable prices. Stay away from expensive, speculative, frothy areas, or at least keep that exposure of your portfolio to a minimum.

• Turn off the TV and Silence your Phone: Regardless of what you hear, the world is not ending. COVID, inflation, and Federal Reserve monetary policies may dominate the headlines du jour but this is nothing new. The stock market has increased more than 7-fold in value since the 2009 stock market lows, even in the face of many frightening news stories (see Ed Yardeni’s list of panic attacks since 2009).

• Understand Stock Prices Do Go Down: We have been spoiled in recent years with above-average returns, but that does not mean you need to panic when prices do decline or that you need to try to time the market. There can be years when stock prices do not appreciate (reference the post-2000 and post-2008 periods), however, those who wisely rebalanced and dollar-cost-averaged positions in their portfolio were handsomely rewarded for their discipline and patience over the long-run.

• Volatility Can Be a Good Thing: Periods of volatility offer you the ability to rebalance your portfolio and take advantage of opportunities that disruption creates.

• Optimize Your Investments Based on Your Time Horizon and Risk Tolerance: At Sidoxia, we customize investment portfolios to meet our clients’ unique circumstances and risk appetite. It’s important to have your investments diversified across a broad array of asset classes in a low-cost, tax efficient manner.

• Get Assistance: If you don’t have the time, discipline, or interest to manage your investments, find an experienced professional who is a fiduciary (i.e., someone who legally places your interests first) and implements time-tested investment strategies. Sidoxia should be able to assist you in identifying an appropriate investment manager. 😉

What Now for 2022?

As I made clear earlier, at Sidoxia, we do not attempt to predict the directions of markets, but rather we look to opportunistically take advantage of many different dynamic areas that we believe provide the best risk-adjusted return potential for our clients.

However, although we freely admit we are not Nostradamus, we do closely follow a wide spectrum of areas in financial markets to best position our investments. Here are some thoughts on some hot-button issues that are top-of-mind as we enter 2022.

Stocks Remain Attractive: Stocks are still attractively priced broadly considering where interest rates stand today. Most people don’t realize that stock prices are actually cheaper today than they were a year ago because earnings will be up roughly +50% in 2021 (see chart below) and stock prices are only up +27%. Stated differently, the price of the market as measured by the forward price-earnings ratio (P/E) has declined, even though the stock market has melted up. Under a different lens, stocks are also attractively priced if you consider bonds are generally yielding 1-2% versus the 4-5% on stocks as measured by the earnings yield of the S&P 500 index (corporate earnings/price of the index), which can be calculated as an inverse P/E ratio. Regardless, if stock prices do indeed decline this year, while bond yields remain in the same general ballpark, then stocks will only become even more attractive.

Federal Reserve Tightening Doesn’t Mean Game Over for Stocks: We have seen this movie before (see chart below). What happened the last time quantitative easing (QE) stopped and the Fed raised its Federal Funds interest rate target? Ten-year interest rate yields went down, and stock prices went up – not necessarily immediately, but ultimately investors were compensated for not knee-jerk selling.

Inflation Does Not Appear to Be Spiraling Out of Control: Just take a look at the paltry yield of the 10-year Treasury Note, currently at 1.51%. And please do not just consider the low interest rates here in the U.S., but also internationally in markets like Germany with negative 10-year interest rates (-0.18%) or near-0% interest rates in Japan (0.07%). If inflation were indeed considered a systemic risk, global yields in large developed markets would not be hovering around 0%. Furthermore, COVID-related supply chain bottlenecks appear to be abating. As you can see from the chart below, the average business delivery times have been coming down in recent months as supply disruptions subside – an improving trend for overall prices.

The Global Pandemic Deserves Watching: There are plenty of reasons to remain concerned, however science and natural immunity may have brought us closer to neutralizing this health crisis. A worldwide focus on creating vaccines, antiviral drugs, monoclonal antibodies, and other COVID treatments has allowed the global health community to more effectively treat those infected with COVID, while simultaneously lowering the number of related hospitalizations and deaths. There is even hope for areas that have lower vaccination rates than the U.S., for example India (see chart below), which you can see has experienced a dramatic fall-off in COVID cases in part because of the large number of previous infections and subsequent natural immunity created.

There are always talking heads and so-call pundits predicting Armageddon in the stock market, but as you can see from the facts presented, record highs in the stock market aren’t currently painting this picture for 2022. Profits have been gargantuan, interest rates remain near generational lows, valuations remain reasonable, and there are reasons to be optimistic regarding the COVID pandemic. Investing is never easy, but it is not rocket science, if you remain disciplined and patient. Follow this advice and your portfolio should benefit in 2022 and beyond.

www.Sidoxia.com

Wade W. Slome, CFA, CFP®

Plan. Invest. Prosper.

This article is an excerpt from a previously released Sidoxia Capital Management complimentary newsletter (January 3, 2022). Subscribe on the right side of the page for the complete text.

DISCLOSURE: Sidoxia Capital Management (SCM) and some of its clients hold positions in PFE and certain exchange traded funds (ETFs), but at the time of publishing had no direct position in any other security referenced in this article. No information accessed through the Investing Caffeine (IC) website constitutes investment, financial, legal, tax or other advice nor is to be relied on in making an investment or other decision. Please read disclosure language on IC Contact page.

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