As I’ve written in bear market times before, investing through trying times like 2018 and (I think likely) 2019 requires discipline, reason, judgment, patience and the experience that comes from long practice. As we head into 2019, all our major market indexes are in the red zone—more vulnerable to crashing than to simply racing ahead, but with rebounds still highly probable. “Staying the course” may sound trite and even unconvincing in the teeth of a bear market—but to be clear, we are not in a bear market by any economic, earnings or inflation measure even as, by the measure of... Read more
After a dismal December for major market averages (saved from a deeper ditch by a rebound), January has begun with moderate gains and diminished volatility.... Read more
Investors continue to discount good news in favor of what they fear about what might turn out to be bad news for our economy and the global economy. Investor psychology is almost always already ahead of the positive or negative facts, a fact that makes investor psychology difficult to factor into any short-term trading, but a near non-event in terms of long-term investing.... Read more
| Model | YTD | 5-Year (Annualized) |
|---|---|---|
| Global Quant Growth | 2.9% | 9.5% |
| Growth | 0.2% | 7.7% |
| Growth & Income | 0.7% | 6.9% |
| Income | 0.4% | 4.6% |
| Annuity Growth | 2.4% | 6.3% |
| Annuity Growth & Income | 2.0% | 5.6% |
| S&P 500 | 4.8% | 11.1% |
| Fidelity Investor Index | 1.4% | 5.6% |
A high correlation between funds may mean that your portfolio of funds is not as diverse as you might want it to be. While other tools may compare funds only to the S&P 500, you can use this tool to determine how closely the performance of one Fidelity fund tracks that of any other Fidelity fund. Compare all the funds that you own. To diversify, look for funds that have low correlation with one another.
Jim Lowell is Editor-in-Chief of the award-winning independent newsletters Fidelity Investor and Fidelity Sector Investor. Through his newsletters, Jim advises individual investors seeking superior performance from their Fidelity investments. He has also written several books on investing, Investing from Scratch (revised edition, Penguin, 2006) and What Every Fidelity Investor Needs to Know (Wiley, 2007) among them. Read more
Jim Lowell adheres to the Cardinal Rule of Mutual Fund Investing: Buy the manager! He makes sure his subscribers, also known as “Fidelity’s Fortunate Few,” are protected and invested in Fidelity’s best funds.
Learn moreThese long-term sector investments are selected based on Jim’s proprietary Fidelity Sector Investor fund-scoring system and set to deliver big profits.
Learn more