Below you will find the Columbus strategy highlights for this month.  For more insights and a detailed discussion, including to get the monthly allocations, please download the report by clicking the button at the bottom of this message.

Going for the dollar as the tide shifts…

• Year-to-Date, Columbus is up 2.4% while the S&P 500 (SPY) gained 2.5%.
• Although YTD returns performance is similar between Columbus and SPY, it is worth noting that Columbus is far less volatile than the S&P 500 given that it took a conservative stance back in late March.
• Meanwhile, the latest uncertainty du jour revolves around Italy’s political crisis and the confusion regarding what it means for the Eurozone.
• Once again, data intelligence allows us to sift through the noise to see what investors actually do while ensuring we invest rationally…
• The big change for Columbus this month is a new substantial allocation to the US Dollar Bullish Index ETF (UUP). The dollar has recently been in an uptrend amid all the global uncertainty and the Trump stimulus passed earlier this year. A case could be made that this could generate inflation long term, thereby further fueling the dollar’s rise.  In any case, Columbus interprets the facts as they are and is now taking a position to capture the dollar’s uptrend.
• On the equity market front, small caps have taken the lead, hitting a new high for the year while the S&P 500 continues to struggle.  As a result, Columbus is taking a meaningful position in the small/mid cap stock ETF (VXF).
• The allocation to gold (GLD) is reduced while Commodities (DBC) continue to be near their maximum allocation, more or less unchanged for over 6 months now.

I encourage you to download the report and read the discussion in section 6 to learn more about Columbus’ portfolio allocation decisions and the related rationale.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me should you have any questions.

Best regards,

Jean-Marc and the Laplace Insights team