Finding Our Way Forward

While we usually avoid talking about market-related issues in this space, we feel that it is extremely appropriate to share some market thoughts at this time.

I have been a Financial Advisor since 1992 and Kelly has been dealing with clients in her various positions with Raymond James since 2005. I have been through the dot-com tech bubble in 2000-2002 (including coming back from events of 9/11/2001); we both have been through the financial/credit crisis/great recession of 2007-2009 and more “mild” corrections (if a 19.6% correction could be called mild) like occurred in October-December of 2018. All of them seemed somewhat unprecedented at the time and it was difficult to see how we would get out of the situation in which we found ourselves.

With the help of Raymond James Director of Equity Portfolio and Technical Strategy Michael Gibbs, we would like to point out what past bottoms have looked like…this helps give us a framework, as hard as it may be, to look forward three to five years (or more) and see what possibilities are.

On his most recent weekly conference call, Michael talked about situations in the past that seemed very unprecedented—how many of you remember practicing nuclear attack drills in school (“Duck and Cover”) in the 1950s, 1960s and even in the early 1970s? Our children currently undergoing school lessons via Zoom seems similar…not better or worse.

The link below has some very good illustrations of how markets behaved in coming through past crises. We find these incredibly helpful in the current environment.

We wish you all health and safety in this extraordinary time.

Bear Markets, A Visual Review - March 2020

-Gary Weiss, April 2020