May 1, 2022
Welcome to May—we bid a not-so-fond farewell to the first third of 2022. In my mind, everything before summer is a prelude. And while we have another 51 days of spring, the weather turns remarkably better in May. In the markets, not so much. From 1950 to 2021, May is the fifth-worst month for returns, averaging just 0.17% gain, with 43 up years and 29 down. (February, June, August, and September are worse, with September being historically the worst month of the year with an average loss of 0.69%[i])
Perhaps you have noticed, we rebalance our portfolios in February, May, August, and November. Rebalancing means we take any cash built up from dividends, contributions, or distributions and invest that cash into positions that have underperformed the rest of the portfolio. We want to bring the laggards back into the established allocation percentages. Read More