While much of the news of late is indeed troubling, recent market action — at this juncture — in an historical context shouldn’t be:
“… in a typical year the S&P 500 averages 1% or greater decline
29 times, with on average 20 of them coming in the first 9 months. This year, there have been
only 4, the lowest since 1995. What we’ve seen so far therefore should be considered a return to normalcy
from a volatility and risk perspective.”
Bespoke Investment Group
As we’ve been preaching herein, regardless of the reasons, heightened volatility is to be expected. Here’s from our August 15 blog post:
If you’re wondering why we’ve stepped up the volatility reminders of late, it’s not because we’re feeling bearish these days (in fact our data says stocks remain solidly in an uptrend), it’s because we’ve been doing this a very long time. And, thus, we’ve learned that even the best of bull runs are replete with multi-point pullbacks.