Following a sharp selloff heading into election week on elevated uncertainty and rising Covid-19 cases, U.S. equity markets staged a blistering rally last week that more than recovered the prior week’s losses as market participants sought to position portfolios for the outcome of the elections and bets for heightened volatility around the election unwound and lifted markets higher.

Ever heard the term “dollar cost averaging”? What does the concept mean to you? In the retirement planning world, this is how you ensure that you aren’t trying to time the market with making payroll deduction contributions.

With full disclosure, I come to you in this writing at the conclusion of the week that brought us the “debate” and a COVID positive in the White House. As we all absorb the seemingly endless journey to the other side of what has become 2020, there can exist a very real effort to dig deep down and stay positive as well as an essential need to pick each other up along the way.

“If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.” - Albert Einstein

I’m a sucker for Presidential history. This is especially true in an election year. Last week, I briefly pondered blowing the dust off of my copy of David McCullough’s biography on Harry Truman. Then the reality set in that it is nearly 1,000 pages and that I am the parent of two small children.