The Ides of March
Posted on Sunday, March 11th, 2018
“Beware the Ides of March.” As we know from Plutarch, a Greek biographer, a seer had prophesied to Julius Caesar that harm would come to him by the Ides of March. He would, in fact, be assassinated on that day. Wall Street is a superstitious lot but it’s the bears that may feel they got assassinated last week. Some of the feedback that we received on our blog last week was that we were a touch bleak. We don’t feel that it is our job to talk about sunshine and roses. Our job is to be the cynic. Our job is to find the risk and avoid it or profit from it. We are not bleak on the market. We are just looking to manage risk and get the best risk return ratio for our clients. We are still heavily invested in stocks for clients but just underweight them as we feel that the risk reward here is turning against investors. In what is probably the best investing book ever written Benjamin Graham, of whom Warren Buffett is a disciple, outlines how to allocate your investment portfolio.
We can urge that in general the investor should not have more than one half in equities unless he has strong confidence in the soundness of his stock position and is sure that he could view a market decline of the 1969-70 type with equanimity. It is hard for us to see how strong confidence can be justified at the levels existing in early 1972. Thus, we would counsel against a greater than 50% apportionment to common stocks at this time. -Benjamin Graham The Intelligent Investor
We wholeheartedly agree with Graham as to strategy but we also think that Graham would agree with us on the market’s current position and how to allocate in 2018. After seeing a massive run in the Dow Jones from 1942 -66 markets were struggling in 1969-70 period. The move lower from 1968-70 totaled a 35% loss in equities. That is the kind of loss Graham is talking about. Graham’s lack of confidence in 1972 was well founded as a massive bear market would take place from 1972-74.
Markets tend to go higher over time and the majority of annual returns in stocks are positive. We don’t need to tell you that stocks are a very good investment over the long haul. Our job is to look at risk/return ratios and know when to back off. You wouldn’t bet on Secretariat to win if a $5 bet would return $1. The metrics on stock valuations are historically elevated right now and history tells us that equity returns from here could be subpar. There is nothing wrong with rebalancing, taking profits and taking down risk. We are not out of the market just underweight stocks. 50% in and 50% out. We can find a reason to be happy whatever Monday brings. The key to what Graham is saying is can you weather the storm? If you are overweight and you get a discount in prices you either cannot buy because you are already all in or will not buy because you lack the psychological and emotional will. You should never be all out and never all in. That way, when Mr. Market offers you a ridiculous price on a stock that you have always wanted to buy you are financially and emotionally ready to take advantage. Not gloom and doom. Just proper risk management.
The Ides of March were known in ancient Rome as a time to settle debts. It looks like the bulls settled one with the bears a week early. Last week we said that the line on the bull/bear game was a push. We thought that with the market a touch oversold the bulls had a slight advantage but that neither the bulls nor the bears really had the upper hand. Well, the bulls made it clear they are not ready to go away yet and shrugged off potential trade wars and another high profile resignation from the White House. The bulls had an outstanding week and let the bears know who is really in charge. The bulls now have the gap at 2850 on the S&P 500 clearly in their sights.
I think we aspire less to foresee the future and more to be a great contingency planner… you can respond very fast to what’s happening because you thought through all the possibilities, – Lloyd Blankfein
To learn more about us and Blackthorn Asset Management LLC visit our website at www.BlackthornAsset.com .
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. – Winston Churchill
Disclosure: This blog is informational and is not a recommendation to buy or sell anything. If you are thinking about investing consider the risk. Everyone’s financial situation is different. Consult your financial advisor.