Macro Observations

You might conclude that the approval and launch of spot bitcoin ETFs was huge for these issuers, several of which have been trying to launch a spot bitcoin ETF for years. There’s already big trading volumes. The bitcoin ETFs open up hassle-less crypto exposure to a whole universe of retail investors. Big win for them, right? Actually, the big winner was investors.

The markets like to talk about the January effect around this time of year that holds that a strong start to the year often leads to positive returns for the year as a whole. I wanted to see if it applied to relative outperformance as well. If utilities are beating the S&P 500 to start the year, will they outperform for the full year? It’d be wise not to ignore what the early performance of defensive stocks is telling us.

If there’s one thing that the financial media does undeniably well, it’s ride whatever the market sentiment of the moment is. Keep in mind that these media outlets are incentivized to get eyeballs on their products, not necessarily provide sound financial advice. Think more like Warren Buffett who advocated for independent thought, using common sense and avoiding groupthink.