What a difference a few short months can bring. As 2016 was getting underway, negativity surrounding the marketplace was mounting. It seemed that with each passing day and week all the major averages were getting decimated as we saw the DOW (DIA) and S&P (SPY) fall from their late 2015 highs and all the talking heads and financial headlines beginning to tout the beginning of a brutal bear market and the worst start to a new year for the averages, ever! With new lows being set for January and most of February, it was relatively easy to find great bargains in the market. Energy, industrial and even financial names were starting to trade at amazing prices, value and yield. Names like Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) were trading with a 5% yield, as other names like Emerson Electric Co. (EMR), Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (ADM) and the large Canadian banks, The Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD),The Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) and Royal Bank of Canada (RY) were sporting some eye popping yields north of 3.5% and even 4%. Of course, we cannot forget the health REITs all falling of a cliff too because of the weak HCP, Inc. (HCP) earnings and guidance, and… as I opened this post, what a difference a few short months can bring.

The DOW and S&P are both back to their similar highs at the start of the year. These events and market uncertainty just further proves to me that no one can predict the future with any degree of certainty. It’s really all a guess. I can just imagine the poor investors that got shaken out of the market in mid-February, at the worst possible time, only to see the markets rise with a vengeance. Knowing that market predictability is all a guess, all I can really do is diversify my investments among companies that sport safe and reliable yields all the while simply holding and averaging down my cost should prices fall dramatically and make monthly buys no matter what’s going on in the world or market. I can say with confidence that a market drop of 50% or more would not give me reason to sell my stocks.