2018 turned out to be a really wild year with the year starting out with drops in January and March that looked like the “end was near” but then came back and continued upward. By August the markets were up quite a bit for the year and it was looking like it was going to be another year like 2017. However, political and geopolitical headlines cause the market to fall in October through December (with large, almost panic, drops in late December). The result was a negative year for the market. Curiously, the huge drop just before Christmas was followed with a huge up day soon after and by the end of the year it wasn’t looking quite so dire.
As I’m writing this in 4Q2019, it is a little foolish to try to predict 2019. Instead, I’ll provide a year-to-date rundown and look ahead toward the end of 2019 and into 2020.