Two very different months

Wall Street stocks staged a late rally to retrace early losses on Friday and post their best monthly performance of the year, despite disappointing results from Apple and Amazon reviving questions about labour shortages, supply squeezes and, in turn, persistently high inflation.

The blue-chip S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell in morning trading, but both indices steadied in the early afternoon. A late surge in the final 30 minutes of trading left the indices up 0.2 per cent and 0.3 per cent respectively, both notching new record highs.

US stocks had in the previous session on Thursday closed at record highs, helped by a series of strong earnings updates from large companies including machinery group Caterpillar, which is perceived as an economic bellwether, along with positive numbers earlier in the week from Microsoft and Alphabet. Microsoft on Friday surpassed its Silicon Valley rivals to become the most valuable company in the world.

Europe’s Stoxx 600 share index closed 0.1 per cent higher after data showed that annual inflation for the eurozone rose to 4.1 per cent in October. This marked an increase from 3.4 per cent in September and topped consensus forecasts of 3.7 per cent, according to a Refinitiv poll.

This inflation data were released alongside figures showing that the eurozone economy grew 2.2 per cent in the three months to September, compared with the previous quarter — higher than estimates of 2 per cent.

So after 2 very different months trading, we thought this would be a good time to show the consistency of our traders. September saw the worst month of the year for stocks with the S&P500 dropping 4.8%, followed by an October that posted the biggest gains of the year so far with a rally of 5.63%.

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Europe saw much more muted gains in October with both the Dax and the FTSE increasing in value by around 2% each. Again, what was lost in September, was gained in October, giving validity to the fact that keeping a cool head and staying in the market, is often the best long term investing plan.

However, global indices might have had 2 of the most volatile months this year, but money can be made in both directions and this is what our traders can do for you. Here are a few examples of how our traders can consistently beat the markets regardless of market performance:

Our traders won’t make money every week, but nor will any equity portfolio. Our incredibly transparent platform now lets you see exactly what’s going on in the markets, whereas your Wealth Manager will only give you an update every few months. If all you got was a ‘net profit’ figure for September and October, it would probably look like slow and steady progress without giving you any indication of the real story. Maybe you don’t want to know what your money is doing, but then again, maybe you do. Don’t stick your head in the sand, have a look at setting up a portfolio with The Portfolio Platform.

Let the professionals trade for you via our innovative autotrade technology. This is the future of investing. If you would like to speak to a member of our team, please contact us here.

For more information please feel free to email us here, or book in a call with one of our directors to hear more.

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