The investment media is a rare
industry in which professionals are rewarded for making bold projections but
never punished for being wrong. The more outlandish a pundit’s forecast the
more attention it receives. Yet, surprisingly little consideration is given to
how accurate the prediction turns out to be.
At the beginning of 2014, there were
some widely-accepted expectations regarding the investment environment. Let’s review
those predictions and analyze how precise they really were.
Interest Rates
In a study conducted by Bloomberg at
the beginning of the year, all 72 economists surveyed predicted higher interest
rates and falling bonds prices in 2014. Consequently, investors were
questioning whether they should reduce or eliminate the bond portion of their
portfolios until the rate increase occurred.
So have we experienced this rise in
interest rates? On January 1st, 2014, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note
was 3 percent. On November 13th, the yield on the same note was 2.35 percent.
That's right -- interest rates actually decreased significantly during the year.
As a result, intermediate U.S. government bonds (ticker - IEF) produced a
return of 7.38% during the year. Not bad for the conservative portion of your
portfolio!
Quantitative Easing
The most widely promoted fear among
forecasters was that the phasing out of the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing
(QE) program would diminish stock returns. Prognosticators worried that the Fed
would lower the amount of loans the government would buy from commercial banks,
thus reducing the amount of money available for new businesses to borrow leading
to less innovation and the creation of fewer jobs.
So was the reduction of quantitative
easing a legitimate fear? In fact, this possibility came to fruition. In
December of 2013, the Federal Reserve was buying $85 billion of financial
assets from commercial banks each month. The Fed reduced this amount during
every meeting it held this year, finally eliminating the action completely in
October.
However, the elimination of
Quantitative Easing did not have a negative impact on the unemployment rate,
which declined from 6.7% in January to 5.8% in October. Further, the S&P
500 has gained 12.31% year-to-date (as of 11/13/14). Clearly, fading
out the Quantitative Easing program didn’t have the negative impact on stocks
that many pundits expected.
Increased
Volatility
Another
widely held viewpoint at the beginning of the year was that 2014 was likely to
be more volatile than anything experienced in 2012 or 2013. There was talk
about valuations and P/E ratios being too high, concern about the war in
Ukraine (ISIS wasn’t even in the headlines yet), and endless noise about
unfavorable weather patterns impacting the market.
So
has 2014 been a wild ride? Since 1929, the S&P 500 has experienced either a
rise or a decline of more than 1% during 23% of trading days. In 2014, the
S&P 500 moved more than 1% only 15% of the time. Less movement equates to
less volatility, so again forecasters were inaccurate.
2015 Forecasts
Bloomberg
News recently published a story titled Predictors
of ’29 Crash See 65% Chance of 2015 Recession, in which the grandson of a
prognosticator who luckily forecasted the Great Depression is still getting
attention for a guess his grandfather made 85 years ago. If giving credence to
forecasters isn’t ridiculous enough, suggesting there is a gene for forecasting
is insane!
The
article doesn’t mention that the same grandson made similar headlines with the
same forecast in both 2010 and 2012; of course, those predictions did not work
out so well. You will start hearing many 2015 projections soon, so pay no heed.
Ignore the
Pundits
The
most significant lesson inherent in these numbers is that market expectations
are essentially useless. Despite their abysmal track record, the news media
loves forecasters because they capture attention and fill space. Unfortunately,
pundits making projections are rarely held to their inaccurate forecasts and
are allowed to continue making a living showing they have no greater knowledge
than the average investor.
Of course, this is not to say that
interest rates will never rise, that bond values will never decline, and that
the market won't return to the roller coaster it is. In fact, all those things
are certain to happen. Unfortunately, anyone who contends to know “when” likely
doesn't actually know anymore than you or me. For this reason, having and
sticking to a diversified investment strategy that coincides with a detailed
financial plan is the most probable path to financial success.
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