What's New

May 2019 Performance Review

06/05/19 - Powerfund Portfolios Performance Review

The sharp rebound in stocks in early 2019 ended just as rapidly in May, with a 6.36% drop in the Vanguard 500 index fund including dividends. In late April, just days after the U.S. stock market broke through the old highs from September 2018 and gained back all the losses from late last year, stocks started falling. At one point in early June, the Nasdaq was back down around 10% from the recent highs—a percentage drop considered a correction (a bear market is 20%).

April 2019 Performance Review

05/03/19 - Powerfund Portfolios Performance Review

The stock market has recovered all of the losses since the previous peak in late September 2018. This quick reversal was largely because interest rates are now lower than last year, and the Federal Reserve will not spark the next recession by raising rates, as inflation is mild at best.

March 2019 Performance Update

04/05/19 - Powerfund Portfolios Performance Review

With the Federal Reserve now more worried about the global economy than inflation, investors continued to jump back into stocks — causing U.S. markets to almost completely erase the sharp slide late last year.

Febuary 2019 Performance Review

03/07/19 - Powerfund Portfolios Performance Review

With foreign markets, value stocks, and lower credit risk bonds weak in February and our relatively low allocation to the hotter areas of the market (like tech and small cap), our model portfolios lagged the U.S. market.

January 2019 Performance Review

02/06/19 - Powerfund Portfolios Performance Review

What December took away January gave back. With the sharp rebound that started right after Christmas, the stock market has recovered a little over half the losses from the 20%+ drop that started in late September.

December 2018 Performance Review

01/10/19 - Powerfund Portfolios Performance Review

Any way you slice it, December was the sort of month where the benefit of not taking on too much risk and avoiding popular strategies worked, basically the opposite tack from the previous months.

November 2018 Performance Review

12/06/18 - Powerfund Portfolios Performance Review

November was a rocky month for stocks and bonds, but it ultimately ended on a positive note. Our portfolios did well compared to the Vanguard STAR fund, which has recently had more downside than our portfolios and potentially less upside as investors shift their portfolio strategies.

October 2018 Performance Review

11/04/18 - Powerfund Portfolios Performance Review

Ouch. The good times ended in October and rather suddenly at that. There are many straws out there, and it's impossible to know which one broke the market's back but break it did.

September 2018 Performance Review

10/07/18 - Powerfund Portfolios Performance Review

In early October unemployment rate dropped to its lowest level since 1969. This is sending interest rates back up to 'normal' levels. The difference this time is the stock market is now sinking along with bonds

August 2018 Performance Review

09/06/18 - Powerfund Portfolios Performance Review

At this stage it looks like the U.S. is winning the trade war, but some of this global stock divergence could be due to frightened international investors moving funds into the U.S. from suddenly scary looking emerging market stocks and bonds.