October bucked the seasonal trend of being a poor month, as equities rebounded strongly since the market bottomed on October 13th when US CPI (inflation) surprised to the upside. Too many market participants had hedged equity holdings going into that CPI report, betting against stocks. When they took off the hedges after the report, stock indices exploded higher on the day, with the S&P 500 rallying 5.5%. 

September was another volatile month, with central banks continuing to create volatility as a direct result of the mistakes they have made over the past 15 years, which we will explain below. The S&P 500 fell 9.3% in USD but only fell 4.8% in CAD (due to a 4.5% gain in the USD vs CAD), while the TSX Composite fell 4.2%.

Stock markets recovered in March with fears of an escalation of the Ukraine war fading, the TSX Composite gained 3.7%, while the S&P 500 (in CAD) increased 2.6%. The Canadian Universe Bond Index had one of the worst quarters ever, falling another 3.0% on the month and 7.0% for the quarter resulting in poor performance for the traditional 60/40 portfolio consisting of sixty percent equities and forty percent bonds.