November 29, 2016 Market Commentary

Click here to listen to audio of our latest market commentary: https://goo.gl/mwYoI5

This week we invited Brian Swann, Regional Vice President at Pacific Life Insurance Company and Pacific Funds, to join us on the call. Daryl and Brian exchanged their prognostications for early 2017 and the immediate impacts of a surprise election and surprise cabinet appointments. We're looking at which sectors will benefit from a President Trump, and which sectors will be harmed. We repeat this often because it's important: we are not traders, we are investors. While there are sometimes opportunities to take advantage of short-term market volatility, we more often like to look toward the future and inform our long-term strategies with what's happening today.

Other highlights of this call include an interesting fact from Clint about the length of this bull market compared to other historical bulls. Finally, Daryl introduces an idea for insuring portfolios against dramatic pull backs.

2016 Election: The Morning After

You can listen to this commentary here: https://goo.gl/z4Gs4t

Daryl Eckman digests the results of the 2016 Presidential election and the effect on the markets and our strategy.

Election Day 2016

Happy Election Day,

As you know, today is an important day. Some of you may be more excited than others to cast your vote, but this is a chance for each of us to express our views.

We don’t want to minimize the impact this election will have on our future, but we would like to try to assuage fears you may have as we await today’s results. It’s important to remember that while a presidential election undoubtedly affects Wall Street, it is just one of many factors determining market performance. What really drives performance in the markets is not the presidential election, but rather the overall macro economy. Undoubtedly, this election will have lasting ramifications. However, at this time, the country is quite divided and the executive branch does have checks and balances from the legislative and judicial branches of our government.

Remember, we are investors, not traders. Just like we aren’t going to panic and make rash decisions due to short-term market volatility, we aren’t going to panic and make rash decisions based on who gets elected. This is something we have discussed in the past. While we will likely experience market volatility based on these results, it has been a volatile year overall and we expect that to continue. The careful diversification of your portfolio has been designed to cushion the effects of any short-term market volatility. If we should get a stock market correction triggered by this election, we will be quick to assess the situation and perhaps be looking at this as a buying opportunity. If we are patient, we will be rewarded.

When it comes to the performance of your portfolio, history shows that it doesn’t matter much which party was in the White House. Looking back to 1900, whether a Democrat or Republican occupies the White House, there has been no statistically significant impact on U.S. equity markets. We anticipate a continued lack of cooperation in our government.

Remember to check our blog at www.eckmanwealthmanagement.com/blog, or our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/eckmanwealthmanagement for more content like this.

Happy voting!