First, a big thank you to all who listened in last Wednesday’s teleconference. The attendance was so high, it maxed out the capacity of the teleconference company we used for this.
Second, thank you for all those who attended for your patience due to the noise and delays to get started.
Third, I apologize for those who called in, and didn’t get in. Everyone was able to get in, for those who tried a couple more times. Missy was working with the teleconference company to get the lines expanded. The problem is like any other business right now, they were short staffed and took Missy longer than it should just to make contact with a person. By the time we connected with the right person, we got the lines opened for anyone who was able to call back. So we started about 15 minutes late.

Lessons we learned, we will make sure in advance that there are plenty of lines opened up. (We never were told there were any limits and any past group teleconferences, we never had this capacity issue). Another lesson, is I will be able to on my end, mass-mute everyone. Not everyone has the ability to mute so there was a lot of background noise. These 2 issues will be fixed for this week.

Lastly on this topic, thank you so much for all the calls, emails, and texts, thanking us for getting out of the market, and for being proactive on sending out weekly emails and offering weekly teleconferences. Your thanks means a lot, and its telling us we are doing what you, as our clients, need.

Facts: DJIA

Mon 3/23 -3.04%
Tues 3/24 +11.37%
Wed 3/25 +2.39%
Thur 3/26 +6.38%
Fri 3/27 -4.06%
Last week +12.84%
Since 2/19 2020 market high -26.28%
Since 3/11 (last day before trades) -8.14%

According to Johns Hopkins, the U.S. has overtaken China in terms of reported coronavirus cases.

President Trump just announced the stay at home order is extended to April 30th now. I would guess as we get closer to 4/30, they may extend this longer depending on many factors.

John Veils of BNY Mellon, isn’t convinced the market has reached a bottom. He points out that recent bear markets had plenty of powerful rallies. Referring to 3 days of last week that were so good.
“Covid-19 infections in the United States are still growing in number and we are not close to the peak of the curve. Indeed, one could argue the worst is yet to come to the public health front, and this could entail even more pain on businesses and employees.

Affinity is worried about the lagging affect the economy will experience once the coronavirus is contained and no longer growing in numbers.
As we stated last week, we see this market cycle we are in to be more like WW. Meaning multiple upswings and downswings before full recovery starts.
Affinity also is viewing this as a 6-10 month cycle. No crystal ball on this, but we are saying we don’t see this being over anytime quickly.

$2 Trillion stimulus (“relief package”), some interpretations from Affinity on what we have been reading on this.

1. $1200 per American, $2400 per couple, making under $75,000 per person or under $150,000 household income
2. $500 per child
3. 10% penalty on retirement accounts are being waived for early withdrawals under age 59 ½. There are many tax deferred qualified accounts this applies for like IRAs.
a. Taxes on this withdrawal can be spread over 3 years instead of paying all the taxes in 2020.
4. 401K loan limits increased from $50,000 to $100,000
5. RMD (required minimum distribution) are waived for 2020
6. Federal tax deadline moved to 7/15
7. Contributions for 2019 retirement accounts extended to 7/15
8. ***there are more details than we can put into this email on who is qualified, and limits, etc…We advise checking with your tax professional as well as doing some of your own research on the 2020 Stimulus “relief package”. This is being called the “Cares Act”.

Opportunities:

1. Roth Conversions. Getting extra money into a Roth IRA, will be extra money growing tax free and have access to withdrawals tax free as well. We recommend you doing this now vs the end of the year.
2. Anyone over age 72 dealing with RMDs, these being waived this 2020 year, excellent opportunity for you to do a Roth Conversion.
3. Annuity IRAs free transfer from that annuity to your IRA brokerage account. Getting more money into brokerage accounts while market is lower, thus more to grow when the market recovers.
4. Referrals. Please share what we are doing with your friends and family. Getting out of the market over 2 weeks ago, weekly email updates, weekly teleconferences to keep you informed. We still hear over and over other advisors are advising to do nothing and ride it out. Riding it out, creates tremendous anxiety and stress. Plus the missing out of opportunities of getting out and getting back in. Although we want to be cautious during these times, there are also opportunities here. No doubt, your friends, family, and co-workers want to have a trusted and proactive advisor like what you have with Affinity Asset Management.
5. Taking advantage of a 2-4 buying and selling opportunities over the next 6-10 months. This means getting in and out of the stock market. (We don’t want to “day trade” as the risks are way too high, but depending on market conditions, we may “cycle trade.”

Reminders:

1. If you want to get back in the market at a different risk level than what you got out at, please call us.
2. If you want to do a Roth Conversion, please call us
3. If you want to transfer some of your IRA annuity money to your IRA brokerage, please call us.

Stay strong, stay patient, stay healthy.

Mark