War in Ukraine: What Should Investors Do?

by James Parkyn

Watching Russia’s horrifying invasion of Ukraine unfold, I was reminded of one of Winston Churchill’s famous quotes:
“The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy, but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.”

It seems that Vladimir Putin and the Russian military are learning this lesson, but so too unfortunately are the people of Ukraine. Our hearts go out to all those who are suffering as a result of this senseless conflict – the human tragedy must remain uppermost in our thoughts.

Having said that, Churchill’s words also have salience for investors who worry their portfolio may sustain collateral damage from this war.

While the invasion does appear to mark a geopolitical inflection point on a scale not seen since the 9/11 attacks, the consequences for the economy and capital markets remain – in Churchill’s phrase – unforeseeable and uncontrollable.

The invasion has added a huge new element of uncertainty to the global economy that could reverberate for months and even years to come. Right now, markets are trying to digest the potential impact, especially for corporate profits.

Clearly, there will be an impact. Some 400 corporations, including some of the largest names in the world, have announced they will pull out of Russia. Heightened uncertainty and lower profits would normally lead to lower stock prices.

Yet, the reaction in the markets has so far been remarkably muted. While it’s true the U.S. market has entered correction territory, having lost 10.3% this year through March 15, the decline started well before the invasion on February 24. The S&P 500 was already down 11.3% on February 23. So, the U.S. market actually gained 1% during the first three weeks of war.

It’s a similar story in Europe, which being closer to Ukraine, you would expect to be more heavily affected. The FTSE Europe Index is down 9.5% for the year, but just 0.6% since the war started.

The Canadian market has actually been a beneficiary of the Russian invasion. It was up 0.3% for the year, as of March 15, thanks to a 28% rally in energy stocks in response to a surge in global oil prices.

So, the war’s impact on the markets—at least for now—is far less than you would have expected if you had based your judgment solely on dire predictions emanating from the financial media.

While the long build-up to war was probably reflected in lower stock prices before the actual start of the invasion, there were many other factors weighing on the markets. Importantly, investors were faced with much higher inflation and the prospect of higher interest rates.

The media had been focused on that bad news before turning its attention to the war. Meanwhile, it gave short shrift to all the good news on the other side of the balance. This includes strong GDP and job growth, record corporate earnings and the reopening of the economy from pandemic restrictions.

So, what to make of all these developments? Well, there’s the evergreen lesson that the media might be a good source of information and entertainment but is a terrible guide for making investment decisions.

More importantly, we are seeing another proof of just how impossible it is to predict how an event like war will affect the economy or the markets.

In this wonderful article, journalist Robin Power put it this way: “We crave certainty. We want to be authors of our own destiny. And we shrink from the notion that, to a large extent, our lives are governed by luck — both good and bad — and simple random chance.  Everything seems so obvious with the benefit of hindsight. But history happens in real time, and nobody knows — not even the generals or political leaders directly involved — how events will unfold from one day to the next.”

Powell’s advice for how investors should react to the invasion of Ukraine? “The vast majority of investors, and certainly those with a proper financial plan in place, should do precisely nothing.” 

We agree. When we’re asked what we are doing in response to events like the war, we answer: Sticking with the plan. Indeed, risk management is about engineering portfolios to cope with periods of high volatility before they occur.

Volatility comes in many forms and from many sources and that’s the exact reason why you get higher returns for investing in equities. You get paid to take risk, but you must be ready to deal with volatility before it comes. You do it with a portfolio that is broadly diversified across asset classes and geographies. 

Then, it’s a question of staying the course and resisting the urge to trade when the headlines are scary. That’s simple but not easy. It takes discipline and why it’s so important to have a long-term plan to rely on at times like this.

4 Ways to Prepare For the Next Bear Market

by James Parkyn

They say hindsight is 20/20 and that’s never truer than when it comes to the stock market.

When looking back at past corrections and bear markets, it’s natural to see all the factors that led to the downturn. However, the picture is much foggier when you’re trying to figure out when the next one might happen.

In fact, the evidence is that no one can consistently forecast the future direction of the markets – either up or down. Of course, this doesn’t prevent analysts, media pundits and investors from trying to predict the next crash.

As we’ve observed in recent episodes of our Capital Topics podcast, the doomsayers have been particularly vocal of late. They’re saying we are headed for a stock market correction or even a bear market because of the relatively high valuation levels of the markets.

The equities markets have had a strong run. For example, the U.S. market’s total return over the 10 years to January 31 was 17.8%, more than double the long-term expected return. However, experience teaches us that relative valuation metrics tell us very little about the timing of market pullback.

What are corrections and bear markets? A market correction is a drop of 10% to 20% from a recent peak. They usually don’t last very long. After a few weeks or months, the market recovers the losses. Corrections are quite normal; they allow the market to consolidate and take a breather before going higher.

A bear market is more serious. It’s when markets drop more than 20% from their recent highs. They usually last much longer. The triggers for a bear market vary greatly, but they are generally related to poor economic data, a geopolitical crisis or the bursting of a market bubble.

Since 1926, the S&P 500 has experienced 17 bear markets with declines ranging from -21% to -80%, according to this report from Dimensional. The average length of these bear markets was 10 months. The longest bear market was in the early 1930s, lasting 27 months, and the shortest one was the COVID crash two years ago. It lasted just one month.

As humans, we’re not wired for negative market volatility. Behavioural science has demonstrated it triggers our fight or flight instinct, and that’s why investors often make wealth destroying errors during a downturn.

Bear markets are when Investors learn their true tolerance to risk. For the long-term investor, they’re actually a time of great opportunity. But for those who panic, they almost always lead to a permanent loss of capital. That’s why it is crucial to be mentally prepared. A big drop may not happen tomorrow, this month or this year, but you can be sure one will occur sooner or later.

So, how should you prepare yourself for the next drop?

• Have a plan—You won’t be surprised by this piece of advice. You need to have an investment plan that you’ve laid out when the markets were calm and your emotions were in check. The plan must take into consideration your need and willingness to take risk as well as your time horizon. Remember that taking too much risk may lead you to bail out of the markets at the wrong time.

• Have a safe bucket—The best way to reduce risk in your portfolio is to have an allocation to high-quality short duration bonds. This safe bucket should be built with government and other top-quality bonds. Bonds hold their value in a bear market and may even gain, offsetting some of the losses in your equity bucket. If you are a retiree pulling money from your portfolios for living expenses, our advice is to have enough money invested in bonds to cover five or more years of annual withdrawals. This will help you stay the course until equities recover.

• Rebalance regularly—Rebalancing ensures your portfolio reflects your risk profile and capacity for risk. This is especially important during a prolonged bull market when many investors grow comfortable holding a larger percentage of stocks in their portfolios

• Tune out the noise—Finally, keep your emotions in check by tuning out the media noise. Embrace the fact that corrections and bear markets are unavoidable and unpredictable. One day they will end. Remember that if you stay disciplined and stick to your long-term investment plan in a bear market, you will be rewarded when the next bull market comes around.

Don't Fall Victim to Anxiety about Where the Market is Headed

By James Parkyn

When it comes to the stock market, some investors seem to believe in the old adage “what goes up must come down.” They worry that after such an outstanding year in the markets, we must be headed for a fall. This month’s downturn is no doubt feeding those fears.

One way this kind of thinking manifests itself is in a reluctance to invest new money in equities because the market is “too high.” Other investors take it a step further and actually sell stock with the intention of buying back in “after the correction, when prices are more reasonable.”

Before the recent bout of turbulence, the stock market had provided exceptional returns dating back to pandemic crash in February and March 2020. In 2021, the Canadian market was ahead 25.1%, its best year since 2009, while the U.S. market produced a Canadian dollar return of 24.6%.

The 2021 gains put equity valuations at relatively high levels, according to such metrics as the Shiller CAPE 10. However, the same observation was made at the beginning of 2021. Then, the S&P 500 went on to make 70 all-time highs during the year.

As author Larry Swedroe notes in this article, valuation metrics shouldn’t be used to try to time markets. “While higher valuations do forecast lower future expected returns, that doesn’t mean you can use that information to time markets,” Swedroe writes. “And you should not try to do so, as the evidence shows such efforts are likely to fail.”

The advice is equally true for market pullbacks and the days when markets hit an all-time high. These periods are often the trigger for the media and individual investors to start speculating about how portfolios should be readjusted on the fly. That’s when people make wealth-destroying errors.

The danger of succumbing to anxiety by selling equities or holding off on new investments is two-fold. First, you will have to make the thorny decision of when it’s safe to get back into the market. Second, you risk missing out on strong returns while you’re sitting on the sidelines. If you want to know how that feels, just ask anyone who sat out 2021.

When it comes to investing, the antidote for unhealthy emotions is a long-term financial plan with asset allocation targets that reflect your objectives and risk tolerance. As the markets move up or down, you periodically rebalance your portfolio back to your target asset allocations and keep your faith that the process works over time.

Your goal should be to cultivate a long-term investor mindset. Long-term investors ignore the day-to-day noise that comes with volatility and stick to their plan with discipline.

High Hopes for Future Returns Can Cloud an Investor’s Judgment

by James Parkyn

It’s been another outstanding year in the stock market. We will have the final performance numbers for you in the new year, but equities have continued a remarkable run that started in March 2020 when the COVID crash hit bottom.

While the strong results are certainly welcome, they appear to have conditioned many investors to hold unrealistic expectations about their future investment returns.

That’s the key conclusion from a survey of 8,500 individual investors in 24 countries and 2,700 financial professionals in 16 countries conducted by Natixis Investment Managers, a French financial services firm with US$1.4 trillion under management.

The survey found a huge gap between the returns individual investors expect to earn over the long term and what financial professionals say is realistic. Globally, investors anticipate annual returns of 14.5% over inflation while the financial professionals said 5.3% over inflation is realistic—that’s a whopping 174% difference.

Canadian investors were somewhat more conservative than their global peers, according to the survey. Individual investors in Canada expected annual long-term gains of 11.2% over inflation while financial professionals believed realistic returns for their clients were 5.1% a year.

By contrast, U.S. investors were even more aggressive in their return expectations than the global average. American investors anticipated 17.5% annual returns above inflation compared with the 6.7% financial professional said is realistic.

The research team at PWL uses an evidence-based approach for setting expectations for future returns for various asset classes and inflation. In our Financial Planning Assumptions paper, published in October, we estimated expected annual returns from a 60/40 equity/bond portfolio to be 4.86% above inflation.

Why are investors so optimistic about future returns? We can attribute it to what’s known as recency bias—a common error in thinking that leads people to give greater importance to recent events.

Clearly, many investors have grown accustomed to excellent portfolio performance. Even before the powerful rally that began in the early weeks of the pandemic, returns had been strong ever since the 2008-09 financial crisis. This has led them to expect it to continue and get even better in the future.

In the Natixis survey, investors identified market volatility as their No. 1 concern, yet their elevated return expectations suggest they’ve become desensitized to risk. We see this in a growing appetite for risky investments such as tech stocks, cryptocurrencies and special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs).

However, capital market history, valuation metrics and common sense suggest we should be tempering our return expectations after such a long period of exceptional performance, not ratcheting them up.

We are careful to control risk for our clients through broad diversification and periodic portfolio rebalancing. No one can predict what the future holds, but a patient, realistic view is the best way to build wealth over the long term.

As the year comes to a close, Francois and the whole PWL team join me in wishing you a happy holiday season and a healthy and prosperous 2022. We look forward to reviewing your portfolio with you in the new year.

Acting in the best interests of clients

by James Parkyn

Some of Canada’s big banks took quite a lot of criticism recently for their decision to stop selling mutual funds from outside companies through their financial planning arms.

CIBC, RBC and TD claim the decision to allow financial planners to sell only inhouse funds is in response to new regulations that come into effect at the end of this year. Those regulations are known as know your product (KYP) and are part of a larger package of client-focused reforms (CFRs) being brought in by the country’s securities regulators.

The KYP rules are designed to ensure investment firms and their advisors have a deep knowledge of the products they recommend to clients.

For firms, this means having policies, procedures and controls in place to monitor investments offered to clients and providing training to advisors on them. For advisors, it means recommending only firm-approved investments and demonstrating they understand what they are recommending and ensuring they are suitable for a client’s portfolio.

The overall goal of the client-focused reforms is to create a higher standard of advisor conduct that will put clients’ interests first. Essentially, it could be viewed as a codification and enhancement of industry best practices that many firms and advisors are already incorporating—from gathering detailed client information to demonstrating product knowledge to revealing potential conflicts and putting clients’ interests first.

The decision by the three big banks to stop selling third-party mutual funds sparked an outcry from critics in the media and the financial industry who say the banks are not acting in the best interests of their clients. They argue the banks are using the new rules as an excuse to sell only their own funds, which are more profitable for them, through financial planners in branches. (Third-party funds will still be sold by the banks’ full-service brokers and their online discount brokerages.)

Globe and Mail columnist Rob Carrick noted the banks are depriving investors of the opportunity to choose better alternatives available from third-party fund companies and said the three big banks are “effectively turning their planners into sellers of bank products.”

For my part, I hope the actions of these three big banks will lead clients to reflect on what they want and should expect from their investment advisor.

The country’s securities regulators introduced the new client-focused reforms after resisting calls to bring in the more rigorous fiduciary standard for investment firms in the face of stiff opposition from the industry.

At PWL Capital, we have long adhered to a fiduciary standard in our client dealings and have argued it should be applied throughout our industry. Under a fiduciary standard, a firm must put its client’s interests above its own and act strictly in a client’s best interest.

For many years, our firm has been accredited by the Centre for Fiduciary Excellence (CEFEX), a global organization that audits and certifies the processes of investment advisory firms.

CEFEX-accredited firms adhere to the Global Fiduciary Standard of Excellence. To obtain this accreditation, PWL was required to undergo an extensive “best interest” review—and, to maintain this status, we must undergo annual audits by CEFEX.

At PWL, we don’t have any in-house products. We have a list of approved securities that includes only investments that have been researched by the firm and approved by our investment committee.

These investments are all low fee and tax efficient. They offer no compensation to PWL, or the firm’s advisors, and they reflect our philosophy that passive portfolios and broad diversification are the keys to long-term investing success.

In all these ways, we demonstrate our steadfast belief that investment advisors must always act in the best interests of their clients. It is the bedrock upon which our firm is built.