The Confident Chronicles: December 2, 2024

I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving!  I am not sure about you, but I ate way too much food, drank some good wine, and had a great time with my parents visiting me and my daughter for the week. 

November was a great month for the stock and bond markets.  We have the election(s) behind us without any uncertainty.  This is good for the markets.  They don’t care which party gets elected; they just need . . .

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Kevin Clark
The Confident Chronicles: November 1, 2024

I hope you had a Happy Halloween!

I am not sure how I had any candy left for the trick o treaters as I have been eating all the Kit Kats and Peanut Butter Cups I bought over the weekend for them.

Fortunately, all the candy is gone, so I will slow down my candy habit.

Speaking of slowdowns, the markets have dramatically slowed down. . . .

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Kevin Clark
The Confident Chronicles: October 1, 2024

Happy October 1st!

The S&P 500 (the “proxy” we use for the American Stock market) fell for the first week of September.  Then it went almost straight up for the last three weeks.  Just as predicted in last month’s Confident Chronicles.  In fact, there were only four down days in the last three weeks of September.

The market dropped over four percent in the first week and then rose over six percent in the last three weeks. 

We will see if the upward market momentum . . .

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Kevin Clark
Fidelity vs Pontera

Last night I was chilling in my pool around 8pm after playing a couple of hours of pickleball (I live in Florida, don’t judge! - lol)

I opened a Sam Adams (Octoberfest) and picked up my cell phone.

I was surprised by the number of emails I received forwarding me the “breaking news” from Financial Advisor IQ. The title of the article was, “Fidelity to Block Credential Sharing on 401(k) accounts; Pontera Rallies FA Troops”. (Click the picture below to read the full article).

I was not shocked by Fidelity’s decision and here is why. . .

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Kevin Clark
The Confident Chronicles: September 1, 2024

I hope that you and your family had a great Labor Day weekend!

I know that I did.  I celebrated the birth of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). 

ERISA turned 50 years old on September 2nd!

This law was very monumental, as it gave birth to the 401(k), which has changed the retirement industry completely. 

But I digress, another month has gone by and we saw another month of extreme volatility.

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Kevin Clark
The Confident Chronicles: August 5, 2024

As predicted in the 8/1/2024 Confident Chronicles, the stock market has suffered from continued volatility. 

Today at 9am EST clients using the Plan Confidence Semi-Tactical models received an email / “push” notification on their phone letting them know new advice is ready.

We have moved the Semi-Tactical models into a very “defensive” posture due to…

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Kevin Clark