Ancient Greeks had two words for time: Chronos, which is quantitative and referring to sequential time such as minutes, hours or days, and Kairos, which is qualitative and signifies a moment in time containing a certain permanence and opportunity. When our lives are busy, it can be easy to lose track of where we should be spending our time.

Remember that the total return of any investment is the combination of income received (interest & dividends) and principal price changes. A low-interest-rate environment can lead investors down a path of taking on unintended risks.

Recent stimulus plans have been designed to increase confidence through words but also through actions of adding money to the economy. M2 money stock, which is a broad measure of the money supply in the economy leaped in recent months. Leaped is possibly an understatement, a chart of M2 now looks like the left-hand side of the Eifel Tower.

The economy and financial markets rarely move in lockstep, especially in the short term. This decoupled nature has long been the case, possibly never more apparent than during the past 90 days.

There are no certainties in how the financial markets will perform in any given year. Regardless of background conditions: market valuations, presidential election years, or who won the Super Bowl, the performance of the market in any given year can vary dramatically.

By now, you may have heard of the stock market recovery taking the shape of numerous letters of the alphabet. Commonly used is the V-shaped recovery. The “V” is represented through a swift decline followed by a swift increase once the inevitable bottom is reached. There are many more shapes being discussed this time around, including; U (decline followed by a flat period before recovery), W, L, and in some cases, the square root sign √. Perhaps you have heard of others?

The US federal government recently shifted gears to allow individual states to open back up based on meeting certain criteria established in the guidelines, Opening Up America Again. Specific to lifting restrictions, states are making separate decisions about when and how they will re-open.