Cahaba Wealth Management is delighted to announce that Walton Cobb, CFP ® has joined our team as a Financial Advisor in the Birmingham office. Walton’s passion is to assist families in reaching their financial goals through the highest level of service and personal care.
Walton began her career in 2007 as a client service associate at Rochdale Investment Management, a boutique mutual fund company, located in New York, NY. She moved back to her home state in pursuit of a career in family financial planning, where she joined Creative Financial Group as a Financial Planning Analyst in 2010. There, she progressed into a relationship manager providing financial guidance through tax planning, investment management, cash flow management, retirement planning, and insurance needs analysis. Walton is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ practitioner, and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and a Master’s degree in Financial Planning (both from the University of Alabama).
Walton and her husband Maury have two children, Maggie and Wil. They are members of Saint Luke’s Episcopal Church in Birmingham. Walton is a sustainer of the Birmingham Ballet Guild and is on Children’s Hospital of Alabama’s Committee for the Future. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling with family and attending Alabama football games.
2022 has been a difficult year to be an investor. Through Tuesday, April 26th, the S&P 500 and S&P 600 (small caps) are down more than 12%, foreign stocks are down more than 13%, and bonds are down almost 9%. There has been no place to hide…
Percentage of market change in 2022
Even with this negativity, we continue to preach our consistent message of understanding your financial plan, knowing we have maintained flexibility with an intimate knowledge of client cash flow needs. That said, there are also reasons to focus on our investment approach, and remind clients why diversification still matters, even when it feels like everything is falling.
The S&P 500 is constructed of roughly the 500 largest US companies, weighted by market capitalization. We say roughly because this index does change over time, and companies can be added or deleted from the index at any given time, so 500 is a round target. Additionally, the S&P Index Committee has specific criteria that must be met for inclusion in any index, and thus not every company stock may qualify.
With the stocks that do qualify, 2022 performance has been anything but uniform. The best performing stock in the index so far this year has been Occidental Petroleum, up more than a whopping 90% year to date! However, the worst performing stock has been Netflix – once the darling of Wall Street, but currently down more than 67% as of this writing. In fact, many of the true high flying stocks of the post-pandemic era, and technology winners of the past decade, are performing well below the S&P 500.
Year-to-date returns of FAANG stocks.
This chart shows the year-to-date returns of the FAANG stocks (Facebook (now Meta), Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google (now Alphabet)), and the ARK Innovation ETF (symbol ARKK), which has been a headline grabbing investment star over the past 36 months. All but Apple have underperformed the S&P, and most by large margins.
The point of this is a quick reminder of why we diversify. Going after the hot names can feel great when it works, but you can see the damage it can cause when it does not. Very few analysts were predicting the fall of technology stocks. In most cases, they argued strongly that there was no reason to own anything but those stocks!
Investing is hard, and much of that comes from our own emotions and biases. We constantly allow the tendency to place too much emphasis on experiences that are freshest in our memory (Recency Bias) to dictate our investing decisions. Fear of Missing Out is a powerful concept, but it’s times like these that we can know that sometimes, missing out is ok.
Brian O’Neill, CFP®, is president and a financial advisor in the Atlanta office of Cahaba Wealth Management, www.cahabawealth.com.
Cahaba Wealth Management is registered as an investment adviser with the SEC and only transacts business in states where it is properly registered, or is excluded or exempted from registration requirements. Registration as an investment adviser does not constitute an endorsement of the firm by the SEC nor does it indicate that the adviser has attained a particular level of skill or ability. Cahaba Wealth Management is not engaged in the practice of law or accounting. Always consult an attorney or tax professional regarding your specific legal or tax situation. Content should not be construed as personalized investment advice. The opinions in this materials are for general information, and not intended to provide specific investment advice or recommendations for an individual. Content should not be regarded as a complete analysis of the subjects discussed. To determine which investment(s) may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor.
Today was not a great day to turn on the news. Stocks (as measured by the S&P 500 from the all time high price reached in early January) have officially entered correction territory, in no small part due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine we all saw unfold this morning.
Price Movement of the S&P 500 over the past year
The chart above reflects the price movement of the S&P 500 over the past year, and you can see the damage that has occurred since the start of 2022. We certainly do not want to discount the fear and emotions that come with geopolitical instability and market turmoil. We do, however, believe that in these times it is worth exploring how we make decisions.
If you look at the chart above, the recent drawdown is apparent. What is less apparent is that while we are in a correction today from all-time highs, we are at the same price level on the S&P 500 we were in June 2021 – barely 8 months ago. Think back to what you were doing in June 2021, and I would strongly suggest worrying about the markets was not on your to do list. The human brain has been trained over thousands of years to deal with problems and conflict, and we are constantly constructing narratives to help us wade through these challenges. Investing is no different.
One of the most important concepts to wrestle with as an investor is Loss Aversion – this is the tendency of investors to be so fearful of losses, that they focus on that more than making gains. Let’s not forget that stocks have historically gone up three out of every four years in general. The knee jerk reaction to recent events may be to “go to cash” or to “wait this out on the sidelines,” but history tells us the markets are way smarter than any individual. By the time we realize this bout of volatility is over, it may be too late to jump back in.
S&P Price Level Since 1950
The chart above is the S&P 500 price level since 1950. While you can certainly see the various drops (specifically the 01–02 dot com bubble bust and the 08-09 financial crisis), the long-term returns are significant for those who can wait that out. Our portfolios are designed with flexibility, and when married with our understanding of each client’s unique time horizon and need from assets, we can avoid selling during these periods of negativity.
We send this primarily as an acknowledgement that these last few weeks have not been pleasant for investors. We are thankful for the opportunity to serve you as a client and look forward to continuing to be a resource for you and your family. Please let us know if you have questions or would like to discuss in greater detail.
Brian O’Neill, CFP®, is president and a financial advisor in the Atlanta office of Cahaba Wealth Management, www.cahabawealth.com.
Cahaba Wealth Management is registered as an investment adviser with the SEC and only transacts business in states where it is properly registered, or is excluded or exempted from registration requirements. Registration as an investment adviser does not constitute an endorsement of the firm by the SEC nor does it indicate that the adviser has attained a particular level of skill or ability. Cahaba Wealth Management is not engaged in the practice of law or accounting. Always consult an attorney or tax professional regarding your specific legal or tax situation. Content should not be construed as personalized investment advice. The opinions in this materials are for general information, and not intended to provide specific investment advice or recommendations for an individual. Content should not be regarded as a complete analysis of the subjects discussed. To determine which investment(s) may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor.
