At Peachtree Investment Partners, we have a long-term relationship with our clients. We work with you to build a customized portfolio that reflects your goals, your financial situation and your approach to risk. Our primary focus has been and remains on preservation of principal.
We use a number of criteria to evaluate companies for client portfolios. We look at a company’s historical performance as well as the potential for future performance. In particular, we consider a company’s profitability and its positioning in the market. We also prefer companies that pay dividends.
We make dividend-paying stocks the centerpiece of our clients’ portfolios. Dividend-paying stocks can add significantly to overall returns and also can help smooth out volatile markets. Although we do invest in some select stocks that do not pay dividends, we focus mainly on those that do.
There are lots of things to worry about these days. We are in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, with no cure and no vaccine. Most scientists agree that what the U.S. is experiencing is not the second wave – it is just a surge in the first. This health uncertainty has caused deep concern among investors and has, from time to time, rattled the markets.
In the water, a fish is graceful, beautiful and in control. But when you land a fish into a boat, it flops around on the bottom of the boat, not knowing what to do next. When it comes to investing during this COVID-19 pandemic, we are all fish out of water.
As investors, we have never seen anything like this. The factors that have caused the Dow to have its worst first quarter in history are not financial in nature. Rather, this market volatility is caused by a worldwide health crisis and the effects of that crisis, from social distancing to unemployment to an overall sense of fear and stress. Yes, it is costing many people growth in their portfolios. But by the time it ends, experts believe, it could cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans, and likely millions of people worldwide. We have never seen anything like this in the markets. But that doesn't mean we are helpless before it.
The U.S. stock market came down with a case of coronavirus this week, as the Dow fell more than 1,000 points Monday on fears that the virus would cause serious problems in the world economy. The slide, which wiped out the market's 2020 gains, was followed by a drop of 879 points Tuesday, as politicians and investors alike scrambled to come up with strategies to help deal with the situation.
