May Day

Hello everyone! Welcome to the May 2024 edition of the Boodle blog! If you are new here, we welcome you, and if you are returning reader, welcome back!
Boodle presents this blog as a way for our members to apply our strategy to their portfolios, and better understand the economy and the stock market.
Here at boodle, we believe that the person best able to manage your hard-earned money is you, and we at boodle act as a guide working for you to help you succeed in this task!
Before we offer our opinion on the economic- financial landscapes for May, we always look back at the previous month (April) to inform you as to where the market is, and where we think it's going?
For the month of April the stock market, as measured by the S&P 500 declined about 2% and there were similar declines in the DOW Jones and the NASDAQ. What caused these index declines? We could point to several likely culprits such as inflation, which actually ticked up a bit and the Federal Reserve stance on pushing back the date on any future rate cuts.
Boodle wasn't caught totally off-guard by these developments and if you go back to the April boodle blog, we expressed caution for any market advancement for April.
National politics continue to play out across the nation as the Israel - Hamas war has spread to college campuses and Universities from coast to coast. 
This conflict here in America could possibly continue into the RNC & DNC conventions that are scheduled for later this summer.
If that prediction comes true, you should expect more volatility in the stock market, and thus, in your portfolios. Boodle believes that volatility will be higher than usual leading up to the 2024 election and that your portfolio should hold securities that can weather whatever comes our way.
Boodle has always been of the opinion that you should hold mostly broad-based mutual funds that closely mimic the benchmark performance of the S&P 500 Index or something similar such as the Total Stock Market Index. We believe that a deep correction of 10-16 percent is overdue in the market and rather than fear such an event, it is our view that such a correction will restore health to the market and actually strengthen your portfolios.
Since we are in the month of May now, we believe that the market may run in place, i.e. not retreat nor advance too much from where it current sits.
Therefore, we are in a holding pattern with our portfolios, meaning that you should continue to adhere to your portfolio strategy and add money to your chosen funds by dollar-cost-averaging and use any weakness (decline) in the market as an opportunity to increase your buying (equities) power.
So that is our take for the month of May. We would like to wish all the moms out there a Happy Mothers Day, and we hope that you enjoyed this edition of the Boodle blog, and as always- we look forward to seeing you back here next month! Until next time, thank you for placing your trust with Boodle, enjoy your month.