{"id":9004,"date":"2020-11-09T15:00:52","date_gmt":"2020-11-09T15:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zackspcg.com\/blog\/?p=9004"},"modified":"2022-02-26T13:06:26","modified_gmt":"2022-02-26T13:06:26","slug":"consistent-investing-wins-no-matter-whos-in-the-white-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/consistent-investing-wins-no-matter-whos-in-the-white-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Consistent Investing Wins, No Matter Who\u2019s in the White House"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The 2020 U.S. presidential election has been a slog for just\nabout everyone, no matter what your political orientation. Unfortunately, the tension\nis likely far from over \u2013 the outcome may not be determined for days, weeks or\neven months. Legal challenges are likely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My advice to readers this week is to push back against the\nuncertainties of politics and to check your emotions at the door. Too often, I\nsee investors conflate their political beliefs with their beliefs about\neconomic outcomes \u2013 a very flawed approach, in my view. Feeling bad about the\nelection outcome may lead to feeling bearish about the country\u2019s economic\nfuture, which may lead to selling stocks for the wrong reasons. I think that\u2019s\na big mistake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>_________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/go.steadyinvestor.com\/arrow-stock-market-outlook?source=website&amp;medium=blog&amp;term=motm_blog_2020_11_9&amp;content=stock_market_outlook_report \">Counter the Uncertainties of the Election by Focusing on Hard Data &amp; Economic Indicators <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even though the outcome of the current election brings\nuncertainty and tension, the stock\nmarket responds far more to long-term earnings and economic growth trends over\npolitics. Therefore, I suggest focusing more on the hard data and economic\nindicators that could positively impact your investments instead of getting\ncaught up in the unknowns of the election. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To help you do this, I am offering all readers our\njust-released Stock Market Outlook report. This report contains some of our key\nforecasts to consider such as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><em>The economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic<\/em><\/li><li><em>U.S. returns expectations for 2020<\/em><\/li><li><em>Potential impact of the election<\/em><\/li><li><em>Why you should be careful in determining what S&amp;P 500 data to use<\/em><\/li><li><em>Zacks Rank S&amp;P 500 Sector Picks<\/em><\/li><li><em>Status of global energy markets<\/em><\/li><li><em>What produces 2021 optimism?&nbsp;<\/em><\/li><li><em>And much more<\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have $500,000 or more to invest and want to learn more about these forecasts, click on the link below to get your free report today!&nbsp;<br> <strong><br> IT\u2019S FREE.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/go.steadyinvestor.com\/arrow-stock-market-outlook?source=website&amp;medium=blog&amp;term=motm_blog_2020_11_9&amp;content=stock_market_outlook_report \">Download the Just-Released November 2020 Stock Market Outlook<\/a><sup>1<\/sup><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>_________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I included the data below in a previous column, but I\u2019m\nsharing it with readers again as an important reminder that economics and\nmarkets have pushed higher no matter what the political balance of power. The\nreason, in my view, is simple: politicians aren\u2019t the engine driving the U.S.\neconomy forward \u2013 corporations and small businesses are. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The balance of power in government is constantly in flux, and we should reasonably expect it to remain that way indefinitely. But history tells us the stock market goes up regardless of how power is divided: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>S&amp;P 500 Average\nAnnual Performance, 1933 &#8211; 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/motm_table1_10032020.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9005\"\/><figcaption><em>Source: Strategas<sup>2<\/sup> Research. To note: the above returns exclude 2001-2002, as power in the Senate changed hands three times in that period.<\/em><br><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/motm_table2_10032020.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9006\"\/><figcaption><em>Source: Strategas<sup>3<\/sup> Research. To note: the above returns exclude 2001-2002, as power in the Senate changed hands three times in that period.<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>I\ncould write pages and pages on how certain election outcomes might result in\ndifferent possibilities for stimulus, tax policies, new regulations or\nderegulation, deficit spending, and on down the line. But sketching out\nhypotheticals would be feckless, in my view. Even if we did know the balance of\npower today, no policy directive is assured and a policy proposed often looks a\nlot different than policy enacted. Politicians have a long history of\nover-promising and under-delivering. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What\u2019s\nmore, the kinds of changes that matter most, like big adjustments to the tax\ncode, often take years to complete. Back in 2017 when President Trump was\ninaugurated, the administration had \u201cThe Ryan Blueprint\u201d for lowering corporate\ntax rates ready to go. It still took a year to push through the changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ronald Reagan is another example. He focused much of his 1980\ncampaign against Jimmy Carter on tax reform, but his signature Tax Reform Act was\nnot signed into law until 1986. Investors have time to plan for changes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Bottom Line\nfor Investors<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In my view, the uncertainty of the moment should inspire\ninvestors to focus on decisions and strategies that have historically led to\nconsistent outcomes. Long time readers probably know what I\u2019m specifically\nreferring to: the value of owning a diversified portfolio of stocks over long\nstretches (20+ years) of time. In a moment rife with uncertainty, I think you\ncan hang your hat on the value of owning a diversified portfolio. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the end of\nthe day, in my view, the stock market responds far more to long-term earnings\nand economic growth trends \u2013 not to changes in political leadership. Investors\nall too often conflate political beliefs with economic outcomes, which I think\nis a mistake. I strongly believe investors can achieve better outcomes \u2013 and\nalso feel better in general \u2013 by countering the uncertainties of politics\nwith consistent investment strategies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, while all eyes are on the election outcome, I recommend\nnot losing focus on the long-term outlook. To help you to this, I am offering all readers our&nbsp;<strong>Just-Released\nNovember 2020 Stock Market Outlook Report.&nbsp;<\/strong><br>\n&nbsp;<br>\nThis report looks at several factors that are\nproducing optimism right now and contains some of our key forecasts to consider\nsuch as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><em>The economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic<\/em><\/li><li><em>U.S. returns expectations for 2020<\/em><\/li><li><em>Potential impact of the election<\/em><\/li><li><em>Why you should be careful in determining what S&amp;P 500 data to use<\/em><\/li><li><em>Zacks Rank S&amp;P 500 Sector Picks<\/em><\/li><li><em>Status of global energy markets<\/em><\/li><li><em>What produces 2021 optimism?&nbsp;<\/em><\/li><li><em>And much more<\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p> If you have $500,000 or more to invest and want to learn more about these forecasts, click on the link below to get your free report today!<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whether Trump or Biden get elected, the winning investment strategy is a long-term, diversified portfolio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[63,71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mitch-on-the-markets","category-private-client-group"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9004"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10514,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9004\/revisions\/10514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacksim.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}