Take a long-term view.

In the short term, the market is a voting machine. In the long term, it is a weighing machine. Short-term stock prices are influenced by a multitude of factors: interest rates, inflation, sentiment, politics, analyst upgrades and so on. But in the longer term, it is how a company specifically performs that will determine its true value. Nothing else really matters if one is looking at an investment period of 10 years or more (and you should).

Academic studies have proven that over one day or week, the odds of having a positive investment return are worse than 50/50. Over a one-year period, this rises to 73 per cent. Over three years, 84 per cent. Over five years, 88 per cent. Over 10 years, 94 per cent. Over 20 years, it’s pretty close to 100 per cent.

As they say, it’s not timing the market, it’s time in the market. But most investors do themselves a disservice by not sticking it out long enough. We get customers saying, “I’ve owned this stock for three months and it is not performing. What should I do?” Sometimes, stocks take a while to perform. Patience is certainly required at times in the market.
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US banks positioned favorably going forward.
Increased interest rates will benefit profits.
Capital markets business - starting to show some green shoots.
Owns several US large cap banks (JP Morgran, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley).

Consumer staples have badly lagged this year, but are clearly a defensive play. Food and energy inflation have shrunk consumer discretionary spending. Not surprised to see household retailers trade. The challenge for staples in recent years is their lean margins, but she expects a shift given disinflation.

How do you stay invested in this period of digestion where there's a lot of risk. There remains inflation pressure on consumers that will impact spending. Stick with companies that have healthy free cash float, moats, competitive advantage and most importantly, valuation. We're in the middle of a correction that is testing moving averages. What can earnings and valuations do? The Fed will be higher for longer.

What's next is earnings season, and expectations are higher over last year. There's a chance that earnings will fall short of expectations. He's been cautious in recent weeks and has been trimming exposure. He's amazed that some on Wall St. expect a soft landing and the the Fed will cut rates. They won't, and sees a recession coming, because inflation isn't under control: oil costs more, UPS and the UAW are on strike and the IRA hasn't deployed capital yet. Car leasing has soared 20-40%. Consumers will be making hard choices. The market will go lower, not higher.

Markets are digesting this. All year, stocks have said no recession, soft landing, rates will be cut next year, while bonds have signalled recession. Stocks are right; we're seeing the un-inversion of the bond market.

She's looking at the sector, but hasn't found the right investment vehicle. When an area becomes topical, valuations get ahead of themselves. Has a lot of potential, especially with EVs.