“I never attempt to make money on the stock market. I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years”. Warren Buffett
Where are we, at the end of September and YTD?
Sorry for the somewhat late date sending this out. I wanted to include the YTD returns, as promised, but there was some technical challenge to that, which I overcame, but it took a little time.
After making a pile of money for us in August, the stock market took a bit of a breather last month. September and October are historically the weakest stock market months – although I really don’t know why. In any case, our funds and our accounts were approximately breakeven. The worst performing funds were the small company funds, which does bother me a bit. Generally, the small companies are the best barometer of U.S. economic and stock market strength. The bonds were weak also. Fortunately, we are using fixed income funds that made good money (better than the stocks this month) because they are not particularly vulnerable to interest rates.
When you look at the YTD returns, you can see that it’s been a very good year for us and patience has paid off. The really strange thing (and maybe somewhat troubling) is that the NYSE Composite Index is up only 2.13%. This is the broadest index of all. On the other end, the NASDAQ Composite (technology) is up 16.56%. Hence our holdings of ONEQ and FTEC. Our various fixed return funds were up around 4%, plus or minus, which is excellent since the aggregate bond index is slightly down YTD. We are fighting against the bonds (rising interest rates) by holding better, alternative, fixed income funds.
As I’ve stated so often this year, the bull market remains “on” and so we remain invested. Remember, a bear market is a process, not an event. And it is not currently in process.
How Did the Markets and our Funds Do in September and YTD?
All index and fund returns are courtesy Morningstar.com. Here are the index returns and our fund returns, both for September month AND YTD:
| Sep 2018 | YTD | |||
| S&P 500 | 0.43% | 8.99% | ||
| Nasdaq (technology) | -0.78% | 16.56% | ||
| Dow | 1.90% | 7.04% | ||
| NYSE Composite | 0.50% | 2.13% | ||
| Russell 2000 (small co) | -2.54% | 10.49% | ||
| US Aggregate Bond Index | -0.64% | |||
| ONEQ | -0.71% | Fidelity Nasdaq | Fidelity commission free ETF | 17.14% |
| IJR | -3.08% | iShares Small-Cap | Fidelity commission free ETF | 14.64% |
| FENY | 2.58% | Fidelity Energy | Fidelity commission free ETF | 8.08% |
| FTEC | -0.29% | Fidelity Info Tech | Fidelity commission free ETF | 21.40% |
| FDIS | 0.51% | Fidelity Discretionary | Fidelity commission free ETF | 17.25% |
| FHLC | 2.18% | Fidelity MSCI Healthcare | Fidelity commission free ETF | 18.15% |
| FBIOX | -1.63% | Fidelity Biotech | stock mutual fund | 14.91% |
| FSMEX | 3.17% | Fidelity Medical Equipment | stock mutual fund | 34.79% |
| FCNTX | 0.14% | Fidelity Contra Fund | stock mutual fund | 16.85% |
| FBGRX | 0.02% | Fidelity Blue Chip Growth | stock mutual fund | 20.33% |
| PSGAX | -3.23% | Virtus KAR Small-Cap Gr | stock mutual fund | 23.10% |
| FKDNX | 0.27% | Franklin Dynatech | stock mutual fund | 24.12% |
| CFRAX | 0.59% | Catalyst floating rate | fixed income mutual fund | 3.70% |
| EIFAX | 0.67% | Eaton Vance floating rate | fixed income mutual fund | 4.59% |
| FFRAX | 0.68% | Fidelity floating rate | fixed income mutual fund | 3.33% |
| GIREX | 0.02% | Griffin real estate int rate | fixed income mutual fund | |
| RNDLX | -0.29% | RiverNorth Strategic | fixed income mutual fund | 0.45% |
| FAGIX | -0.05% | Fidelity Capital & Income | fixed income mutual fund | 2.35% |
| LENDX | 0.29% | Stone Ridge Alternative | peer to peer fixed return m.f. | 4.20% |
| Prime Meridian Small Bus LP | 0.57% | 1 month lag | private peer to peer fixed return | 4.64% * |
| Prime Meridian Real Estate LP | 0.67% | 1 month lag | private peer to peer fixed return | 5.24% * |
| KIP, Kay Income Partners LP | 0.56% | private mortgage fund | 5.06% | |
| * only through August 2018 |
Your investment return(s) for the month of September AND YTD was/were as follows:
September:
YTD:
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,