J.P. Morgan Asset Management on Monday, Jan. 3 sent a first-quarter 2011 market guide to its network of financial advisors as a tool for asset allocation and discussions with clients. Strikingly, the free guide tells its stories of the markets in pictures much more than it does in words.
The 58-page J.P. Morgan Funds Guide to the Markets – which is chockful of index charts, returns by sector, equity scenarios, fixed-income yields and returns, mutual fund flows and global commodity performance—was published in electronic form on Jan. 3, the first business day of the quarter, updated through Dec. 31.
"We don't put commentary in the guide itself. The reason is that we want people to be able to express their views or their companies' views," said David Kelly (left), chief market strategist at J.P. Morgan Funds.
Seeing the Present With Clarity
The guide covers everything from the nature of the economic recovery to specific investment opportunities in stocks by industry, style, size and investment approach. It provides a wide-ranging perspective on risks and opportunities for investors as well as a timely and logical framework packed with statistics and economic data for discussing markets issues.
Just as important as being timely, the guide is not a prediction of the future, Kelly said. It is a picture of where the economy is right now.
"The reason we feel so strongly about that is that we spend far too much time in this business trying to make predictions about the future when we really don't know what's going to happen short term," he said. "The secret to long-term success in investing is really not so much seeing the future with some kind of mythical vision. It's seeing the present with clarity."
