"Bottoms Up!"

Bottoms up! [To consume this post as a video, go here] While more so of a drinking term, I think “bottoms up” can apply to our current stock market environment. In my March video, I explained the concept of “sideways trading,” where the market slowly goes back and forth with no real direction up or down. I also mentioned how sideways trading was a great opportunity to get money into the market before it takes off again. Did you take advantage of it? I don’t know for sure – and only time will tell – but I think we’re starting to see the market take off from here to give us a positive return for 2023 as we climb out of a very tough 2022. The market formed a “bottom,” and now we’re going “up.” Bottoms up! And I think it makes sense, too. 2022 was a really challenging stock market year: and it’s not often we have two down years in a row; we still have a strong labor market despite the Fed’s rate hiking measures to cool it off in an attempt to rein in inflation; inflation has cooled and as an economy we’re accepting more normalized interest rates after living through a very low interest rate environment for several years. Additionally, those more normalized interest rates are giving our safe and fixed investments a nice boost with savings accounts and money market funds north of 4%. Overall, I think the economy and stock market fundamentals are on a strong footing as we hopefully come out of our sideways trading to finish positive for ‘23 as we lead into a maybe strong ‘24. If you have any questions on this or you need help, reach out to me.