I follow many investment thought leaders like Tom Lee (Fundstrat), Warren Buffet (Berkshire Hathaway), Mark Zandi (Moody’s), and Bill Gross (of PIMCO fame). Another less well-known thought leader that I follow is Charlie Bilello of Creative Planning. He is mostly focused on retirement strategies and behavioral finance.
His most recent post dealt with the current market pullback in comparison to other recent pullbacks. He looked at the >5% pullback in the S&P 500 from its recent peak back on February 19. Interestingly, there have been 30 corrections >5% off of a high since the March 2009 low. In his words, “they all seemed like the end of the world at the time” (see table below).
The point being, of course, is that despite our behavioral bias to be fearful of market pullbacks there is good reason to view them as a normal part of the market. As we have seen before, it is reasonable to expect that the markets will recover and new highs will emerge over time. No guarantees, of course, but this is what we have always seen!
D&A is committed to risk-managed long term strategic investing for clients with a long term time horizon. Clients with a shorter time horizon and lower tolerance for risk are invested accordingly. The current economic and geopolitical stresses we are seeing now in regard to tariffs and the Ukraine/Russia war are certainly troubling but are not insurmountable. Patience has always been rewarded!