Enclosed you will find your Fourth Quarter 2009 Performance Report. As a reminder this report is a summary of your monthly statements and transactions you receive directly from TD Ameritrade along with the IRS tax basis of each of your investments. This report summarizes the last 90 days activities. This report is designed to help give you a slightly easier view of your portfolio activity over the latest quarter and is intended not as a replacement, but rather an enhancement of your regular monthly reports which are sent to you directly from TD Ameritrade.
This from our last Quarterly cover letter
“While the last Quarter of the year has historically been the best returning quarter, we feel the bar has been set high and jumped over in the prior two quarters. A slower, more deleveraged economy, on solid footing, is our rather. This may mean a very meager return compared to the last two quarters, but would, in our opinion, give the economy and investor’s, time to heal”
Our favorite Domestic Index the S&P 500 was up just over 5% for the Quarter, a very strong showing, but much smaller than the prior two quarters 15%+ returns.
Choppy and non-directional are our forecasts for the next several quarters, as much of the stimulus winds down, and the US Economy is left to run on its own. We expect during the transition period there will be many false inflection points, both positive, and negative, that lead to substantial market movements. We do not expect the dramatic moves we have seen over the last eight quarters, but there will be scary headlines that will test investor nerves as we determine the new growth speed of the US Economy and other parts of the World. In our Next Newsletter we will have much greater detail, forecasts, and a high point review of the last two years.
The latest recession and dramatic changes in the US Financial landscape have taught us much. As you may have noticed we enhanced our Newsletter, started a Blogsite, and attempted to communicate more than we ever have in the past. In a continuation of enhancements we have added an “Investment Allocation” line to the Front of the Quarterly Report. Our goal is to remind and communicate our broad allocation and mission of the portfolio, while making it easy to modify and update as life changes occur. This allocation is from our Investment Policy Statement (Mission Statement of Investments) and we have included our Hypothetical Allocation Chart at the back of your report as an easy reference.
We will be sending a separate tax report by mid February that will summarize taxable items and help in your government tax filing requirements should you have a taxable account. We have included our latest private policy statement for your review. Also, we want to take this opportunity to offer our latest ADV filings; Requests for review will be accepted via phone, mail or email, and mailed immediately upon request.
Sincerely,
John A. Kvale CFA, CFP