There are only a few things you can count on in the stock market. First, in the long run, the market tends to rise. Second, whenever I go on a vacation, the market tends to sell off at the exact same time. The success rate of this metric is incredible, and this April was no exception. As I set sail for a 7-day cruise, the market commenced a hard sell-off and ended up notching its worst weekly performance in 14 months. I did buy the upgraded internet package offered by the cruise line, and capitalized on the volatility, but still…

It's incredible how fast news is hitting these days and impacting investor sentiment. Lately, investors are focused primarily on geopolitical risk, a Federal Reserve that keeps insisting rates will fall but have shown no signs of cutting, and a US election that cannot possibly be predicted with any degree of certainty. Adding a little trickery, Artificial Intelligence is being used to create seemingly real-life videos of things that are not actually happening. In fairness, some of it is pretty funny.

I continue to believe there is value in holding defensive assets which may do well in weaker markets.