Recap from our Investment Committee meeting on March 1, 2023
Third Party Portfolio Review – At Fortress Wealth, we create, manage, and monitor our own models. With that being said, we value the opinion of 3rd Parties with portfolio review/oversight experience beyond that of our own. Recently, Fortress Wealth Group’s Investment Committee met with the team from Aptus Capital Advisors for a due diligence meeting. Not only did we review some of their investment offerings that we feel could be great additions to our models, we also asked them the hard question: “What, if anything, would you do different in our models?” – 9 times out of 10, most 3rd party consultants will only take a neutral stance (essentially dancing around the question, without giving a clear stance on their opinion). After submitting our portfolio(s) for review, we were pleasantly surprised with the hands-on approach that they took to analyze our holdings as well as the thoughtful responses they provided (and the fact that they didn’t shy away from giving us their true opinion). With all that being said, Aptus Capital Advisors reaffirmed our current holdings/model structure and commended us for taking an active approach to economic outlook and investment management.
Fortress Wealth’s current positioning and how it plays into our economic outlook – to start the year, we’ve seen the market rally, then falter and subsequently rally again (here and there). With that being said, there are still rampant fears of inflation and potential economic recession. Taking that into account, we feel confident in how we are currently positioning client accounts with the thesis being, there is more volatility (side-ways market movement) to come. Of course, as I’m sure you are now aware, we are publishing our Strategic Investment Process on a (minimum) quarterly basis. You will see the next iteration of our Strategic Investment Process (SIP for short) published on our website – Fortresswealthgroup.com (under “From the Fort”) as well as distributed with your monthly client statements at the end of the month.
Positions that we are excited about – for the first time in a long time, fixed income seems to be “exciting”. Not high-flying TESLA moving up 100% in one month exciting, but stable investment growth with solid yields exciting. A few positions that we find attractive right now (and you most likely will see them in your account) are:
- TFLO – this is a shorter-term floating rate treasury position. It’s been exceptionally steady in the current market environment and is currently generating approximately a 4.6% yield. A handful of clients have used this as a “cash” alternative for short term needs (perhaps you’re renovating a house, but don’t want to sit in cash the whole time or maybe you’re expecting to make a substantial purchase in the near term, but don’t want all of the volatility of the current market). Either way, this position has us excited.
- FDRXX – this is our standard money market fund (any cash in your client account is typically held here). Current yield is approximately 4.20%, which is much more attractive than the previous yields of approximately .10%
- In contrast to these two positions that have been exceptionally stable during the rate hikes, other positions – like that of QQQ, META and other tech-heavy stocks – have struggled to maintain their post-covid performance (Down approximately 26% and 46%, respectively), resulting in reduced near term excitement/exposure.