We start the new year with more and more headlines which are completely expected. Whether its Greenland, Venezuela or credit card changes or charging a Federal Reserve Chairman criminally, it looks to be a continuation of the same as last year.  We do seem to be having less of an issue with tariffs and the impact hasn’t been as bad as what was expected, and I am expecting this may lesson even further over time. Our relations with a neighbor south of us have been fairly quiet even though we still have no real trade deal. The themes of last year have been strong and have been what are driving the economy. I still see this continuing as well but it appears the need for materials, global metals, robotics , housing seem to be the new themes that are developing going forward. The markets remain expensive on a price multiple basis but it can stay this way for a lot longer. It also appears the big seven companies who took in all the investment dollars are now starting to look like not the only thing to invest in as there are many other cheaper companies. We have written about this for a bit now but it does seem to be coming together. Our portfolios are set up to move towards those themes as they appear to be the best areas for growth as well as to keep some of our good core companies as our foundation. 2026 will not be short of volatility we expect, but again we expect to use those days or weeks to our advantage as the themes mentioned above have a good amount of potential going forward. It will be another interesting year.

     Like the other years we will use the volatility to our advantage and I will keep you updated as this year develops.