THE hardest year or YOUR hardest year?

And not just this holiday season. I feel like we do this every year.

On twitter people come out talking about how it was the hardest year they could remember or the hardest year of their careers.

I just don't see it.

Was 2022 a hard year in the markets? Yea. They're all hard. If you want something easy then go do something else. This ain't it.

To me, it's not what happens throughout the year that increases or decreases the level of difficulty. It's an investor's ability to adapt to market conditions.

And did much even change this year? The best performing sector was Energy. That was also the best performer in 2021.

Communications was the worst performing sector this year. In 2021 Communications was also the worst performing sector.

Interest Rates ripped and bonds sold off in 2022. They did last year too. Maybe the trend accelerated earlier this year, but those trends were already in place well before 2022 kicked off.

Growth stocks were the big underperformers this year while the more value oriented stocks outperformed. That happened for most of 2021 also.

Precious metals were flat on the year. They didn't do much in 2021 either.

But forget all that. Let's say some trends did change, and they most certainly did, as some trends always change each year.

What is it about these changes in characteristics that makes things "harder"? What is it about the continuing trends from the prior year that makes 2022 "harder"?

Just because you decided that you only invest in US Growth Stocks, and you only do so from the long side, doesn't mean this year was harder. It just means you didn't do a good job of adapting.

I think about these things a lot.

It's not what the market does that makes it harder or easier. It's an investors ability to adapt to changes, or lack of changes, that makes it harder or easier to profit.

If you use trend following strategies in a market that is rangebound, you are definitely going to have a harder time than someone who adapted and incorporated more strategies that are best for sideways markets.

If you only went long US tech stocks in an environment where US tech stocks were trending lower and underperforming everything else, then yea sure you probably think this is a hard market.

But is it? Or are you just making it difficult on yourself?

You've been shorting energy stocks because you bought into this whole lie about ESG saving the planet or whatever? Then yea, I'm sure you found this year to be really hard.

"It's not you, it's me", is how we want to address the markets.

Price action provides the information. As investors we can choose to accept it, or ignore it.

I've been around here for 20 years. I've noticed that a large majority of investors choose (purposely or otherwise) to ignore the only data that pays them, in favor of other arbitrary factors that their former professors tell them matters, or cartoon characters on tv or whatever depressing twitter spaces they subscribe to.

Price is the only thing that pays anyone.

If you ignore it, then you're going to think this was a hard year. In fact, you're most likely going to think that every year is a hard year.

And while they are indeed all difficult, life is easier when you're following trends instead of fighting them.

Tuesday night we'll be going over everything that happened this year, and more specifically what we've seen over the past month/quarter.

This is going to be our first Live Conference Call of the new year. You aboslutely CANNOT miss it.

We'll be discussing the most important trends in markets, not just stocks but in precious metals too.

There are more opportunities to profit out there today than we've had in a long time.

If you can't make it live, the recording of the video and slides to download we be made available immediately after the completion of the call.

But I absolutely encourage you to be there live so you can interact, comment and ask questions.

We get going LIVE on Tuesday Jan 3rd @ 6PM ET.

Premium Members can register here if you haven't already.

And if you don't have access to registration for whatever reason, just email me and we'll get you set up.

See you there!

- JC