RTM Capital Advisors Mid-year Market Update

With the first half of the year behind us, it’s a good time to provide a brief market update and evaluate where we are in the US equity markets relative to what we anticipated for the year 2018. RTM Capital advisors annual market outlook was, and currently remains bullish & positive for US equities. (what currently seems to be the contrarian view) We also predicted that it would be a more difficult year to capture upside return opportunities that were obtainable in the previous year. As such, 2018 is playing out as predicted with far higher volatility and much lower risk to reward profiles.

A look at the major market Indices, shows the Dow Jones currently in negative territory for the year while the S&P 500 is slightly positive. The more growth-related indices of the Russell and Nasdaq are up an average of 10%. In this first half of the year, had you been fully invested in the Nasdaq and Russell you would have endured multiple large corrections. If you had full exposure in the best performing index; the Russell 2000, you would have tolerated almost twice the pain to achieve that market gain. 

Avoiding high market volatility involves the use of tactical management that among other things can swiftly move to cash positioning to prevent large down-market swings.

RTM Capital Advisors Core Strategy invests in the major market indices with a tactical approach to index selection and full cash allocations for volatility reduction.  During the first half of this year we have moved to cash on multiple occasions and without being fully invested in the markets have outperformed the S&P 500 benchmark in total return. In Consideration of our worst drawdown relative to performance, we are outperforming by many multiples.  

A critical distinction for investors is not to look only at the return but also look at the risk taken to achieve the return. We believe this is true money management and can make all the difference in achieving your goals.

For questions, comments or more information please contact us.