I hope your start to the new year has been going well and that you made some special memories with your loved ones over the holidays. For my part, please know that it was a joy to serve you last year, and I greatly look forward to working with you in the year ahead!

As we step into 2025, I thought it would be beneficial to take a moment and reflect on what an extraordinary year 2024 was for investors.

[Not interested in market commentary? Skip to the postscript for a fun fact about 2025.]

Markets tumbled recently, giving their worst performance of 2024.1

And then promptly rallied again.

If you’ve been reading my recent emails, you’re probably not surprised. Let’s talk about what’s going on.

It’s been a wild August for markets.

Recession fears kicked off the worst selloff since 2022 at the beginning of the month.

Then markets staged a choppy recovery, even notching the strongest week of the year along the way.