“Every day, self-proclaimed stock market “experts” tell us why the market just went up or down, as if they really knew. So where were they yesterday?” – Anonymous.
Where are we, at the end of July?
The markets rebounded strongly in July from a mediocre month in June. It was one of those months where you wish your account was 100% stock funds and 0% fixed return.
It’s actually a little crazy because our stock funds under-performed, on average, the stock indexes and averages, which is very uncommon. The Virtus fund might hold the best YTD return on the list and yet it was slightly down. As a result, our average “moderate model” return was something under 2%, which of course also reflects the “drag” of fixed income holdings.
On the good side of things, our fixed income investments did relatively VERY well while the traditional bond market is TERRIBLE (note approximately zero return in July for the bond index after negative return in July).
My thinking has not changed about the bull market still having room to run. It’s said that bull markets climb a wall of worry and I’m not paying attention to all the “reasons” A, B and C why the bear market is lurking. I’m paying attention instead to all the statistics that are not showing troubling signs – as yet.
How Did the Markets and our Funds Do YTD and in June?
All index and fund returns are courtesy Morningstar.com. Here are the index returns and our fund returns:
| July 2018 | |||
| S&P 500 | 3.60% | ||
| Nasdaq (technology) | 2.15% | ||
| Dow | 4.71% | ||
| NYSE Composite | 3.67% | ||
| Russell 2000 (small co) | 1.69% | ||
| US Aggregate Bond Index | 0.02% | ||
| ONEQ | 2.26% | Fidelity Nasdaq | Fidelity commission free ETF |
| IJR | 3.24% | iShares Small-Cap | Fidelity commission free ETF |
| FENY | 1.18% | Fidelity Energy | Fidelity commission free ETF |
| FTEC | 1.99% | Fidelity Info Tech | Fidelity commission free ETF |
| FHLC | 5.91% | Fidelity MSCI Healthcare | Fidelity commission free ETF |
| FBIOX | 1.70% | Fidelity Biotech | stock mutual fund |
| FSMEX | 3.13% | Fidelity Medical Equipment | stock mutual fund |
| FCNTX | 1.93% | Fidelity Contra Fund | stock mutual fund |
| FBGRX | 1.02% | Fidelity Blue Chip Growth | stock mutual fund |
| PSGAX | -0.15% | Virtus KAR Small-Cap Gr | stock mutual fund |
| FKDNX | 1.49% | Franklin Dynatech | stock mutual fund |
| CFRAX | 0.56% | Catalyst floating rate | fixed income mutual fund |
| EIFAX | 0.87% | Eaton Vance floating rate | fixed income mutual fund |
| FFRAX | 0.66% | Fidelity floating rate | fixed income mutual fund |
| GIREX | 0.41% | Griffin real estate int rate | fixed income mutual fund |
| RNDLX | 0.26% | RiverNorth Strategic | fixed income mutual fund |
| FAGIX | 0.82% | Fidelity Capital & Income | fixed income mutual fund |
| LENDX | 0.59% | Stone Ridge Alternative | peer to peer fixed return m.f. |
| Prime Meridian Small Bus LP | 0.55% | 1 month lag | private peer to peer fixed return |
| Prime Meridian Real Estate LP | 0.64% | 1 month lag | private peer to peer fixed return |
| KIP, Kay Income Partners LP | 0.56% | private mortgage fund |
Your investment return(s) for the month of July was/were as follows:
We should talk if you would like to review exactly where you stand or if we should consider a change. I am available at your convenience. I have Skype video in case you would like to do a video conference.
Best,