June 2021

Welcome to June! May seemed like a more "normal" month than we have had in a long time. With fears of the pandemic last year, the election cycle, and the optimism of lockdowns and normal life returning, we have ridden numerous up and down waves. May, was a bit calmer. Of note, the Sortino Standard Deviation of all three stock funds are within 0.10% of each other, making the funds pretty equal investments, if one were to only use this metric. For example, a year ago, the Sortino Standard Deviation was C - 5.05%, S - 7.01%, and I - 4.676%, a rather wide spread. Much of this deviation can be attributed to the wild market in April and May of last year as these metrics use the previous 12 months. Standard deviation has also come down significantly while the funds average returns show very strong returns. Of course, this is all historical in nature and is only a guide at best. Moving forward, the year does continue to show promise with the reopening of the economy. As many of you will remember, I was invested in the F Fund for two months this year (February and March), when the market was unusually sloppy with high volatility. I chose not to participate in that much risk and my annual returns reflect my more conservative position from those months. They were highly volatile, but on each occasion, they ended up for the month, much to my chagrin. I expected the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates to curb inflation, that did not happen, and I don't see it happening for the remainder of the year. Therefore, with higher inflationary pressure and an expanding economy, stocks will continue to be the recipient of most investments, making the C, S, and even the I Fund look attractive as stable investments. Keep investing!