Your bear market game plan How to thrive in an extended market downturn Well, it looks like the party is finally over. After decades of lower and lower interest rates, central banks around the world have determined that interest rates need to rise before inflation gets out of hand. Unfortunately for investors, global stock markets haven’t taken the news well. At the time of writing (early June), the broad-based S&P 500 U.S. stock market index is down about 23%. Predictably, former growth sectors (technology in general, small-cap stocks, housing stocks and anything connected with either online or traditional media) have come down dramatically, while many formerly outof-favour sectors (energy in particular, but also utilities and certain mining stocks) have risen in response. For veteran market-watchers, this cycle from bull to bear, from popular to unpopular, from greed to fear is nothing new. But that doesn’t make the experience of going through the cycle any easier. And it does bring up an important question: what should investors do now? How can snowbirds, many of whom rely on their portfolios for income, navigate this bear market turbulence and position their portfolios for growth in the future? Here are some tips and strategies for how you can do that. Taken together, think of the points below as your bear market game plan: a set of tangible actions which you can take to protect your portfolio in the here-and-now, and position it for success when the market finally emerges from the current malaise. by James Dolan 36 | www.snowbirds.org Finance
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