by Scott Ronalds

From our Quarterly Report:

In hindsight, the modest returns of the first nine months of 2018 were wonderful compared to the last three months. After nine good years, the former was frustrating and slightly disappointing, but the latter has been downright jolting for everyone.

Hopefully the fourth quarter declines weren’t totally unexpected. If you read any of the Steadyhand commentaries over the last year, you know that the most commonly-used word was ‘caution’. I’m sure our subdued tone and bear market preparations sounded like a broken record.

With the fourth quarter behind us, however, we’re now shifting from defence to offence. That means talking ‘up’ return expectations as opposed to talking them ‘down’ (the nature of investing is such that most of my life is at one end of the spectrum or the other, rarely in the middle). There’s now a risk that people are too negative in the face of today’s political and market turbulence.

Read Tom's full brief and the rest of our Report here.