Oh my, where did the time go? I guess there are two ways to answer that question. Having missed the third quarter update, even though I submitted a quarterly rebalancing transaction as usual, I wondered whether I was too busy or too disheartened to scribe a blog entry at that time.
Truly, there is no time like now!
On the one hand, even though the market is cyclical and bear markets are inevitable, each is brought upon through a unique set of circumstances. Not one bear market has started because an alarm rang out and signaled for everyone to start selling (although, a solid counter-argument could be made for that being the start of the Dotcom crash with that alarm being Y2K not ending the world, as so many cynics insisted was possible). Whatever balance of circumstances that sent the markets down, weighted heavily by the Fintech sector and cryptocurrency market, which appropriately are taking the brunt of this bear market, it was due time given the strength of the bull market(s) from 2009 through the end of last year.
On the other hand, there is no time like now because this bear market has been long enough and strong enough to signal the last-chance to buy at these prices. Whether this opportunity extends another year or two, when bear markets surrender, the resulting whiplash propels markets to new heights without looking back to the prior bear market. This year, the 52-week low of the Dow Jones is 28,660. In February 2009, it was 6500. If you had purchased shares of an index fund in February 2009, they would be valued 4-1/3 times higher at the worst point of this year.
Truly, there is no time like now. Is that a blessing or a curse? It all depends on how you look at it (and what you do with it).
As for my rebalance, I found it surprising that my best-performing fund in the past three months (which included the trough of September) was by far the actively-managed equity fund! Active fund managers swear that superior returns are found in actively managed funds (go figure!) but I have rarely found that to be true. But I will give credit when credit is due and note that this past quarter was a great example of times where actively managed funds can significantly outperform passively managed funds.
