Newsletter – October 2017

Dear client:
This quarter’s newsletter will be somewhat abbreviated compared to previous newsletters as many of the trends we spoke about in June are still in place. The stock market, as defined by the S&P 500 has gained approximately 14% year-to-date. We are somewhat surprised by such a move given the ongoing political turmoil, risk of nuclear war, Federal Reserve interest rate hikes, and other concerns surrounding global markets. The stock market doesn’t seem to care and continues to plumb new highs. As a result stocks are now being valued, on a number of measures and ratios, near or above high points seen in 1987, 1999, and 2007. High valuations are a poor predictor of just when the next drop will come. However, the margin for error now looks to us to be fairly extreme so we are proceeding with caution. As we know, there is no insurance policy when investing in stocks and bonds. The closest thing to insurance is investing when stocks are depressed or trading at low valuations based on many decades, if not centuries of history. At the stock market lows in March of 2009, High quality blue chip stocks were trading at historically low valuations. If you were astute enough to put money in the market in March of 2009, you could have thrown darts at a stock board and done well. 

If you hit Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Honeywell, McCormick – all have done well as stocks were cheap. Just the opposite is true today. GSB Wealth Management is being very selective in deploying new money and have been taking profits or trimming exposure to stocks where appropriate. Our bias toward quality is intact and we do not chase fads or “new eras”. We are cognizant that Amazon, Netflix and Tesla have been flying high and leaving many “blue chip” stocks in the dust. We saw this in 1999. Once the internet bubble burst, the high fliers were decimated and many of the stocks lost over 75% of their value. Some went to zero. At the same time, the stocks mentioned above held up relatively well and continued to prosper in the years to come. We have found repeatedly that sticking to our knitting makes financial sense, even if at times we look a little stodgy when the rocket stocks hit the launch pad.

​Speaking of rocket stocks, we thought we would make a few comments on Amazon. Amazon is clearly a market disrupter, taking over market after market, the latest being the grocery industry. There is even a term for it called being “Amazoned”, as if Darth Vader comes in with his magic wand and suddenly an entire industry goes “poof”. Amazon’s share price is approaching $1000 and the market capitalization (the value of all Amazon stock outstanding) is approaching $500 Billion, one of the largest companies on the planet. What many folks don’t realize though is that Amazon makes very little in profit. For some reason Wall Street has given Amazon Carte Blanch to earn very little, year after year, as if one day they will flip a switch and earn billions. Doubtful this can happen. To flip the switch would mean raise their prices on goods they sell. And Wall Street continues to turn a blind eye. Imagine if Procter & Gamble were to come out and say they are lowering the price on Tide and Pampers and Gillette products until their profit nearly went to zero. The stock would likely get penalized harshly, falling from $90 to $50 overnight, if not lower. Yet Amazon continues along, earning next to nothing while its stock flies high. It almost seems unfair. While other companies must earn a healthy profit to garner a high stock price, Amazon gets away with earning little yet is able to disrupt industry after industry using its highly valued stock as currency. This same phenomenon was rampant at the top of the internet boom in 1999. Then it hit the wall. At GSB Wealth Management we prefer to stick with high quality companies selling at reasonable valuations, even it means giving up some relative performance in an aging bull market. We feel now is the time to focus more on managing risk than chasing return.

Sincerely, The GSB Wealth Management Team