Gate Down | I’m looking for Alpha

The last month has not been much fun for investors. The focus has been on the election, the wars in Ukraine and Israel, and also what the Fed may or may not do. All these things pushed the bulls in the pasture, trying to avoid electric fences. At the same time, the bears have come out of their caves and are running rampant in all our markets.

“Always remember that your own determination to succeed is more important than any other.”

– Abraham Lincoln

The numbers speak for themselves. Over the past month, according to Bloomberg data, the Dow Jones is down -1.01%, while the S&P 500 is down -1.73% and the NASDAQ is down -2.55%. What is interesting here is the comparison of sectors. The NASDAQ is full of high-tech stocks that are falling more than the rest of the stocks markets. There is a hint here that we should all be aware of when making investments.

“There’s only one side to the market, and it’s not the bull or bear side, it’s the right side.”

– Jesse Livermore

In my opinion, the biggest driver of the stock markets will be who is favored to win the election and what their economic policies will be. All kinds of policies have been thrown around recently and I look at some of them and just shake my head. Inflation was not just the Fed’s business, but both presidential candidates’. There is also the issue of the number of immigrants who have entered the country and what they will do to both the economy and the markets. The country is at a crossroads, and so are the bond and stock markets. We are in the midst of our election and there is no doubt in my mind that whoever is elected President will have a significant impact on our investments.

Please “keep” this in mind as we head into November! We may be in a time where we are “barely” getting by.

“The last leg of a bull market always ends in hysteria; the last leg of a bear market always ends in panic.”

– Jim Rogers

Original source: author

Editor’s note: The abstracts for this article were chosen by the editors of Seeking Alpha.