YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WYTV) – Most Americans will vote on Tuesday, and we should know the next president Tuesday night.
How does that choice affect your money? The first day of Election Week shows this could be a wild ride for the stock market.
Since 1952, stocks have gone up 81 percent of the time on the day before an election and 56 percent on Election Day.
Todd Bury, president of Bury Financial Group in Youngstown, said whoever gets elected, some market volatility should be expected through the end of the year.
Bury said this election is unprecedented, however.
“A lot of clients are nervous. We did move some money to cash,” he said.
Bury said he polled his clients before the debates about who would win, and it was tied. He has also asked his clients about the stock market’s performance for 10 years after every president was elected, since 1936.
“I say, ‘Who do you think the worst was? Everybody says Jimmy Carter. Actually, Jimmy Carter was the second-best president for the stock market at 16 percent a year,” he said.
Ronald Reagan had the highest annual returns, while George W. Bush had the lowest due to 9/11. When President Barack Obama was elected, the stock market tanked for days, dropping almost 1,000 points.
Whoever gets elected to replace Obama, the stock market could show days of big swings, and Bury says the wisest investors will be ready.
“You always hear buy low, sell high,” he said. “There will be certain stocks that get beat up with election results or that will be volatile and sell off for no reason.”
This election year started off as the worst year in the history of the stock market. Through mid-February, it was worse than any other year, including the Great Depression.
But if you invested on January 1 of an election year and kept your money in the stock market for 10 years, in 15 of the 18 most recent election cycles, you would have doubled your money and three times you would have tripled it.
“Even if the market takes off after the election, let’s say the market does run up after the election. There will still be opportunity out there. There’s still going to be stocks in certain industries that didn’t run up and pull back, and we’re going to try and buy them on a dip,” Bury said.
Bury had a meeting with staff to prepare a list of stocks on Monday. He shared some of the industries that may benefit, depending on the outcome of the election.
A Clinton win could lead to gains for healthcare providers and alternative energy sectors, while a Trump victory would seemingly benefit biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and even regional banks.
