2024 promises to be a very interesting year, to say the least!
Of course, we’ve got a monumental presidential election in store at the end of the year, and both the House of Representatives and the Senate will also be up for grabs.
But I’ll leave the discussion of those coming battles to the political commentators and prognosticators.
Instead, I’ll be watching and writing about the U.S. economy and the financial markets – and their impact on our portfolios.
Because right now we’re at an inflection point, when several important factors could boost economic growth and bring us a bull market year for 2024. Conversely, they could instead send the economy into a tailspin and tank the stock market.
And yes, I’m fully aware that the stock market is not the economy. Recessions don’t always deliver bear markets, and many periods of falling economic activity have seen stocks rise.
That’s why I love our service The Oxford Communiqué Pro.
For several years now, Oxford Club Chief Investment Strategist Alexander Green and I have held a monthly discussion about potentially catalytic events on the horizon – major earnings reports, Federal Reserve policy changes, economic indicators and more – and the potential they have to affect markets and the several portfolios that Alex runs.
In the summer of 2022, we decided to share those monthly discussions with readers. We added a concise monthly market outlook, a videoconference each month by Alex (the State of the Markets Call) and a new stock portfolio to accompany these, which we call the Profit Accelerator Portfolio. These three monthly pieces of fulfillment combine to form the Oxford Communiqué Pro service.
I think it’s been a big success.
How do I know? Well, we recently polled Pro subscribers about how effective and useful they find the service. On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 1 being completely useless and 10 being extremely beneficial), more than half rated it an 8, a 9 or a 10. Another 19% gave us a grade of 7.
For full transparency, here’s the complete breakdown of the responses.
In addition, 7 in 10 subscribers responded that they would recommend the Pro level of benefits to other Communiqué subscribers.
I’d say that’s very positive feedback. And right now, we’re working on ways to improve the service so that the 20% who rated our information and analysis a 5 or below will – hopefully – change their minds about it in the coming months.
All Winners
Currently, the Profit Accelerator Portfolio has six stocks in it, all of which are in the black.
Three of them are sitting on double-digit gains. And the average gain of our open positions is 22%!
While we don’t have a perfect track record in the portfolio – when market volatility spiked a few months ago, it caused us to stop out of a few of our positions for losses – our stop policy has worked exactly as it’s designed to, protecting our gains and minimizing our losses.
We focus on a diverse mix of companies too, which prevents the portfolio from being overly reliant on a single industry or economic sector.
Current stocks in the portfolio include an oil and gas pipeline company, a retail chain, a cloud networking company in the artificial intelligence space, a vehicle manufacturer, an asset management firm, and an insurance products provider.
Oh, and one stock Alex picked this summer went on to be the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 for the month of August. It’s up 25% since he recommended it.
In subscribers’ responses to the poll, they stated they liked the portfolio, but they enjoyed the commentary – both the State of the Markets Call that Alex provides and the Market Outlook Monthly in which I convey what he and I discuss each month – even more.
“The market monthly outlook deep-dives into specific moves anticipated in the upcoming month,” said one respondent. “This is the only such deep dive from the services I am subscribed to.”
Alex’s “well-rounded market assessment… is crucial underlying context for every trade you might make,” said another subscriber.
“It’s been a tumultuous year in the market and the discussions have given me guidance and reassurances,” wrote a third.
Well, 2024 could be just as tumultuous, I’m afraid…
The housing market is teetering right now due to all the Fed rate hikes. The labor market is still strong but slowing. Inflation has come way down, but prices for just about everything remain substantially above where they were two years ago.
These are tricky issues to monitor and predict. And their impact on markets is complex too.
Perhaps most complicated is the American consumer. When asked about the economy, consumers right now are expressing general unhappiness. Yet, paradoxically, their spending patterns suggest they’re pretty confident in the future.
These are just the types of issues Alex and I look at closely in the Pro services so we can help our readers separate important market and economic signals from all the surrounding noise… and profit from that insight.
If you’re interested in learning more about The Oxford Communiqué Pro, go here now.