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.

Staying Conservative…

• Year-to-Date, Columbus is up 1.7% while our world allocation benchmark (GMWAX) is down -0.8% and our new 60/40 global stocks/bonds benchmark (VSMGX) is up 1.6%.  Meanwhile, the S&P 500 (SPY) gained 5.8% on the back of a strong earnings season this past month.
• Although the earnings season drove the S&P 500 July gains, many recent news headlines are outright bearish.  There seems to be widely diverging opinions in the analyst community, resulting in much confusion among investors.
  Market turbulence, diverging opinions and confusion are typical during major regime changes.  The equity markets have not yet established their next bearings, so Columbus keeps exerting prudence with a portfolio that is mostly out of equities for the time being.
• Columbus continues to maintain a large position in the US Dollar Bullish Index ETF (UUP), despite somewhat of a stall in the dollar’s run lately.  This is mainly due to a lack of compelling alternatives at this time.
• An important exception is the allocation to our real-estate ETF (VNQ).  VNQ first appeared in the portfolio last month with a tiny position that rounded down to zero.  This month is another matter as Columbus allocates a substantial portion of the portfolio to VNQ.
• Meanwhile, the allocation to our Commodities Complex ETF (DBC) has been reduced substantially, reflecting its recent loss of momentum.

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