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In today’s fast-paced media coverage of the Trump administration's policies, investors need to manage their emotional responses to the constant flow of information and shifts in the market (^DJI, ^IXIC, ^GSPC).
Sincerus Advisory managing partner Dann Ryan joins Wealth, where he suggests dialing back on media consumption to avoid being overwhelmed.
"Maybe if there's an article and you don't have time to read it, don't read the headline because there is an emotional component to that, that you're carrying around with you through the day," Ryan advises.
Ryan also stresses the importance of staying grounded when making portfolio decisions and adjustments, encouraging investors to "turn off the notifications on your phone — which is a horrible way to consume content — and take some time to defy your world a little bit so that when you're making those decisions, you're really grounded in having the complete data set in front of you."
Additionally, he acknowledges that market pullbacks are inevitable, but urges a long-term perspective. Ryan highlights sectors such as financials (XLF), utilities (XLU), and healthcare (XLV), while also reflecting on Big Tech's "mid-life crisis" the landscape is going through.
Dan, great to have you here in studio with us. Now you say you’re helping clients reduce the noise. So turn down the volume there, and actually recommend checking your portfolio a little less, little more woosah perhaps. Walk us through this.
Sure, Brad. Thanks for having me. Um, of course, it’s been an interesting month or so, where we’re all just adjusting to this new influx of constant media coverage. And we’re pretending to relearn the lessons from Trump 1.0 and calling them Trump 2.0. And really, it’s just an administration that’s less about having a constant thesis and more about just occupying the conversation constantly. And for investors, that’s really tricky when you have to go home and create a thesis for your own portfolio when you’re tuned into that on a daily basis. And so, maybe they can adjust their behavior a little bit so that they’re not so subjected to it.
Interesting. Okay. So, as you think about everything, because of course our job is to cover what is being talked about from the administration, and there’s so much, but what are you dialing up versus dialing back in terms of things that are impacting portfolios right now?
Sure. And so, there’s a little bit of just behavioral shifts, right? If maybe if there’s an article, and you don’t have time to read it, don’t read the headline, because there’s an emotional component to that, that you’re carrying around with you through the day. And maybe you have to turn off the notifications on your phone, which is a horrible way to consume content, and take some time to de-appify your world a little bit, so that, so that when you’re making those decisions, you’re really grounded in having the complete data set in front of you.
And so, that’s how to turn down. So, what about when you finally have time to read into an article? What is the kind of next leg of research that you should be doing on top of it? If you know there is a potential impact to one of your portfolio components.
Sure. So, having a data set that you know has kind of a long-term outlook. And um, again, because so much is going to be short term in nature. And the reality is, you have to have some some general sense of the market in that a pullback is likely in the next four years at sometime. Maybe that’s 10% or 20%, but the reality is, it’s going to come. And if you are spending everyday doomscrolling and expecting that pullback, then when it does come you’re going to have a tremendous confirmation bias, right? And you’re going to say I knew this was coming, and that’s going to shade your decisions going forward.
In your notes to us you said that big tech is undergoing a mid-life crisis. Break that down for us.
Sure. So, uh, well, big tech already bought the Porsche, right? It got its AI baby, and it and it’s rode it around for a little bit now, and now maybe it’s time that it has to go home and deal with earnings. And we’ve seen a lot of this forward guidance starting to have this softening language in it of like, hey, we might be below expectations. So, there might be some whipsaw effect here throughout the year.
Want to get some of your sector picks as well here. You like financials, utilities, health care, rank them, and and what are you expecting from these three?
Sure. So, I’m going to do what an advisor does always when they don’t have a better idea, and that’s say we like high-quality stocks that pay a dividend. And so, those those are the major players there. I think first financials, obviously, it has been a Trump trade with the the potential deregulation, but more so than that, there’s some really strong balance sheets and names out there that pay a dividend, maybe Goldman Sachs, or JP Morgan. Um, so that’s probably top of our list. After that, again, utilities with a dividend component. We can all stare down the facing electricity need in the country, and so in that regard, there’s some great names, maybe an Eversource, or an AES there. Um, and lastly, healthcare, you know, there’s less dividend paying names, but we’ve seen things that do pay a dividend, like CVS is having a tremendous year already.
Interesting. Within those and I know we’re focusing in on sectors right now, but are there specific names within each of those sectors that you’re a little bit more bullish on than others because of their own positioning right now?
Sure. Yeah. Absolutely. Like I said, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, those those are those are great names. These are blue chips. And again, playing to the quality and just having a strong balance sheet, strong earnings. Um, and and certainly, uh, the energy names are a little bit more speculative, but again, it’s not the energy that we all thought it was going to be. It’s going to be drill, drill, drill, and oil. It’s also electricity.
Interesting. Dan, great to have you here in studio.
Pleasure. Pleasure, Brad. Thanks so much, Brad.
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This post as written by Josh Lynch