Elections do present a key risk to investors, however.  As Election Day approaches, an investor may be more likely to make an abrupt change to his or her long-term investment strategy.  Making a significant shift in strategy can take the form of going “all-in” to increase risk (and potential return) if an investor is highly confident of a certain result.  Usually, however, a strategy shift involves an investor raising a large amount of cash in the face of increasing market volatility and uncertainty.  

When investors stay invested during the inevitable periodic downturns, they have, historically, recouped their losses by just remaining invested.  However, it is much more difficult to catch up with a market that has already moved higher if an investor has retreated to a very conservative position and has to play catch-up.  Because it is impossible to predict the impact of elections (and all other events) on the markets, we believe the best course of action is to maintain the strategy that is right for your particular goals.  Many investors have multi-decade investing horizons, and this election is just one of many, many uncertain events that will come along.