Corrections Aren't Crashes

Hi All,

I just want to drop a quick note to discuss two topics: a brief (for me, lol) update on the markets, and a reminder on our operational process.

First, we are rightfully going through a NORMAL correction that is both orderly and long overdue.

Today, we are hovering near the first S&P 500 support zone; these levels are areas where the market may naturally stabilize before bouncing back. From my Saut team newsletter this week: Nearby S&P 500 Support: 6631-6646, 6550, ~6450, 6343-6360, 6200, 6147, 200-day moving average, 5950, 5650-5800.

We are in the weird time of year where assets are being sold for reasons that are not easily explained. Tax gains/losses and repositioning for year-end are the large culprits. There are also constructed algorithms that try to force sells with something called stop-loss orders for people trying to lock-in gains in a declining market. This is why I detest stop loss orders. There are others out there trying to take your positions from you by fishing around even numbers that you may want to sell your shares for as they go down.

As we all know, the markets are not a straight line up, yet we have gotten very comfortable with the lack of volatility since April's large selloff. We must remember that we have collectively gained between 50-70% cumulative since moving to iA only 26 months ago. A correction or two is OK!

I have taken profits and moved assets to other positions for us in the last few weeks (profits from ARE, CLS, STX moved to PFE and more AMZN & DKNG) but also see no need to get more defensive. We still continue to collect our dividends through all market cycles, and our monthly investors are buying more shares with the same dollars while assets go on sale!

For those of you expecting a market crash, this is my new favorite way to describe it from a chat I had this weekend:

We have a four-way stop right in front of my office. Every few years there is an accident there. There has not been one for quite a while, yet I am not willing to grab a lawn chair and wait for the next one. It could happen today or may not happen for a very long time. We will go about our day(s) hoping something we cannot predict does not happen anytime soon, but when it does, we will triage the situation and do our best to mitigate the damage and loss.

Does anybody think we should go make a change at the intersection today to stop something that may, or may not, happen? Should we get a lawn chair out and warn people of the impending doom at this intersection? Or would we be the ones to actually cause the crash by creating a problem that wasn't there? I refuse to worry about things out of our control and watched dozens of cars go by while writing this. Whew! No catastrophe yet, lol.

Second item, there is an overwhelming amount of fraud happening right now via phone, text, and email. We want you to stay sfe and protected from this abhorrent behaviour.

That said, we will never accept trade instructions via text or email. Ever.

You're always welcome to email us, but we will follow up with a call to confirm any instructions. If you do not answer, we will not proceed with any action for your protection. This is also required by law. We will not break it for anyone. If you’d like to skip a step, you’re always welcome to call us as we answer the phone every weekday. On texts: I’m happy to chat about the Oilers or how great we're doing (teehee), but I will ignore any request via text. We do have a great team here willing to help every day, please call us so we can help you.

Cheers!

Steve