Here you’ll find DFA's Q4, 2019 Market Summary. Page 4 will show stock and bond market returns for major indices around the globe. You’ll see all green arrows for 1, 5, and 10-year returns. While we typically expect returns to be positive over 5 and especially 10 year returns and beyond, the very healthy positive returns we saw in 2019 should not be assumed to continue nor should be expected to be this robust year over year.

We can enjoy these strong returns and use opportunities to rebalance money from the outstanding market performers into the still positive but less performing areas of the stock market, and / or we could look to take some money off the table, if your portfolio objective allows for it. Ultimately, it is important to stay grounded and to not get too high with the highs, nor too low with the lows.

The final two pages tie in nicely into the idea of staying grounded and not getting too high (or low) in response to your portfolio’s performance. According to a recent survey by DFA, sense of security / peace of mind was the most popular answer when respondents were asked “How do you primarily measure the value received from your advisor?” Our job is to talk you off the ledge when returns are down…knowing those down days are temporary, and to keep you grounded when markets seem to be making new highs almost every day - knowing those days can be fickle, too and knowing today’s bull market can turn into tomorrow’s bear market.