I am out of the office this week for my first getaway of 2020. This email is coming from out of the office and not in its usual format.
This is a short email. Last Monday’s email I noted, I was skipping this week’s email due to short week, plus I am out of the office. However with recent events and activity last week, I felt it best to keep everyone informed.
Last Wednesday, September 2nd, the Dow closed at 29,100.
Last Thursday, September 3rd, the Dow dropped 1000 points intra-day (down -3.52%), and ended up finishing at 28,292. Down -2.78%
We don’t work on Fridays as you know, but make ourselves available for return calls. We had our team teed up and ready to come in on Friday September 4th for potential buy-in opportunities. This has happened several times previously where we are all ready to buy in as Thursday was a drop day, then those Fridays ended up being a positive day, thus no buy-ins on those Fridays. Well this last Friday the DOW dropped intra-day another 700 points (approx) and down another -2.22%. By the end of Friday, the DOW finished -0.56%, so there was a bit of a rally at the end of the day but still finishing negative.
We bought in 20% into stocks. This is for all brokerage accounts that start with QCX in the account number. So portfolios are now 80% bonds, and 20% stocks.
Those accounts we did NOT buy in this 20% stocks included:
1-Any accounts that have not returned their paperwork quick enough to move their brokerage accounts that start with PJR to QCX in time.
2-Any accounts that are coded as “restricted”. This means you have given us instructions to do something different, like bought in previously, or no buy-ins at all at this time.
Mutual Funds (MFs) vs Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs):
*Both look the same when it comes to a package of stocks and/or bonds for diversification.
*MFs trade, meaning bought or sold at 3:00pm CST, regardless when we entered the trades into the system. ETFs trade at the time we place the trades into the system
*ETFs have much lower internal costs, called expense ratios.
Big advantages of ETFs is trading. Last Friday was a perfect example. Our team came in Friday ready to buy some stocks in all accounts of 20%. That morning, the market was at another sizable drop. We started buying. And with ETFs, we locked in lower buying points at that time of trade vs. if we did MFs, and got them locked in at 3:00pm CST. By the end of Friday, the market rallied back, but still down. It was down more earlier in the day when we placed the buys.
We do expect another round of stimulus. President Trump has announced that and is likely to get it pushed thru before election according to experts. In fact, most experts expected the stimulus to have already been signed by Congress and implemented.
We do not know when we will buy in an additional 10% or 20%. We do not know when we will sell the 20% stock we just bought in. No crystal balls of course, so getting back out or getting in more depends on what the market gives us, and the news that comes with it.
We will keep you more informed as we have more information. We do expect as we get closer to election, more volatility and the ups and downs that come with it. Meaning potential opportunities for us.
I wanted everyone to get this email before statements started to show up and questions surfaced. I hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day weekend.
