No – we’re not buying now.That would be imprudent given the current market environment.

In fact, Appleton Group has proactively raised significant defensive assets over the past two weeks, which has helped to reduce market participation and investment risk. We know from experience that market turns can be volatile, and last week saw wild swings that actually sent the Dow Jones Industrial Average up slightly for the period. But markets are experiencing significant downward pressure on the open today, and appear to be headed for significant losses to start the week.

For many strategies used by our retired clients, our defensive positions (money-markets and short-term bonds) equate to as much as 10 years of annual withdrawals. That liquidity buys many of our retired clients ample time to fund retirement distributions. “Buying time” doesn’t mean we’re buying – now is not a time to be aggressive.

While our defensive adjustments over the past week have been significant, we stand ready to further reduce market exposure as needed. The simple fact is that markets are moving faster than ever, and while the factors that are causing the volatility will be easy to identify in hindsight, our work to raise significant defensive assets has been tremendously helpful; however, market risks are still high and The market shock due to the economic impact of the Corona Virus and now OPEC’s ill-timed price war are combining to offer a “1-2 punch” that is adding to investor unease.

We expect exchange “circuit breakers” to kick in this morning, which will temporarily halt market trading in an effort to stem losses. We will update posts regularly throughout the day…