2022 was one of the worst calendar years for the stock market. The 18.15% drop in the S&P 500 (including dividends and index fund fees) was the seventh worst annual hit since the 1920s. This in itself is not that remarkable. The interesting part was that the bond market was also down 13.25% – essentially the worst year in history for the bond market.

The US stock market rebounded strongly in October, rising over 8%. It was an even better month for value-oriented stocks and energy stocks, which helped push the Dow up 14%, its best month since the 1970s.

The rebound in stocks that started in mid-June ended in mid-August, and we’re almost back to square one – a bear market.

We made some changes to our portfolios. The end result was a slight increase in stock and interest rate exposure by moving from shorter-term bonds to longer-term bonds, which are more sensitive to interest rate changes. This means that a 1% increase in rates equates to a bigger drop in price. We also made some changes to our hedging to protect the portfolios from an increasingly likely drop in higher credit risk debt, aka junk bonds. There just isn't the kind of selling from funds going on to mark a great buying opportunity even with the bear market decline.