Whenever the market behaves in a tumultuous way to the downside, as it did last week, I like to look back to see if there were any mutual funds or ETFs that bucked the trend. I’m not talking about the obvious bear market funds, but others that may have held up well and may have been part of your portfolio.
This is only a short-term view of market activity and certainly not meant for you to rush out and buy those that survived the week on a positive note. But you may consider them and do further research to see if an investment in them is merited.
Higher interest rates were the culprit for last week’s 3-day slide, which means that interest rate sensitive funds/ETS fared the worst. This is confirmed in our momentum tables; here are the worst of the bunch out of my data base containing 1,504 funds/ETFs:
1. UTPIX, Utilities, -7.80%
2. PMPIX, Precious Metals, -7.05%
3. XLU, Utilities, -5.30
4. EWZ, Latin America, -5.28%
5. FSUTX, Utilities, -5.27%
The top five, which held up best, are:
1. CH, Country Fund, +3.04%
2. TIFQX, Technology, +2.75%
3. TF, Pacific Asia, +1.44
4. EWT, Pacific Asia, +1.22%
5. CNZLX, Pacific Asia, +1.17%
As a general comparison, the S&P; 500 lost -1.87% for the week while Gold dropped -3.38%. That means that even a traditional safe haven such as Gold failed to hold up again just like it failed during the meltdown of February 27.
While it is important to diversify your holdings, it is not a guarantee that your portfolio will withstand a severe market slide. The sell offs during May/June 06, at the end of February 07 and now last week, are proof that many markets work very much in tandem and to own a “zig” holding when the market “zags” is rare indeed.
That’s why I continue to believe that a clearly defined entry and exit discipline is the best way to deal with market uncertainties and keep your portfolio from freefalling.