Escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine finally resulted in a full invasion by Russia. While Ukraine grabbed the bulk of the headlines, the economy didn’t help performance in the equity markets. Thing ssuch as high inflation, oil pushing $100 per barrel and expected rate hikes by the Federal Reserve pushed prices lower through the first few weeks of the month. For the month the S&P 500 was down 2.99%, the Nasdaq 100 was down 4.64% and the Eurostoxx 50 dropped by 6%. Like January, equity markets were extremely volatile both during the month and intraday. For example, on February 24th, the S&P 500 was down nearly 3% at one point only to finish up 1.6% for the day. Having said that, an approximate 8% decline from the January highs still pales in comparison to the rise in excess of 100% from the March 2020 lows. Maybe a well-deserved correction is the extent of the decline but in the coming months, markets must still deal with rising inflation and interest rates as well as their affects on corporate earnings.
Our diversified portfolio went against the grain, posting an impressive 2.42% return for February. This was bolstered primarily by our relative value and hybrid momentum models which both had significant positive months. Our hybrid momentum model spent the majority of the month short capturing the bulk of the markets decline. Our counter trend model attempted to take advantage of the market choppiness but ended up spending the majority of the month long. Nevertheless, it was still able to manage a small loss of just 0.90%. Overall, we are quite happy with our model’s performance and their ability to maneuver a very difficult environment.