As I write this early in the week, Pfizer has announced that maybe they will have a pill for COVID-19 that you can take at home. How cool is that?

Because of the way they have conducted themselves and their company, Pfizer is becoming my favorite pharmaceutical company. This is not a recommendation to buy the stock. It is merely my opinion that their company, which has played a major part in the vaccine distribution for COVID-19, is professionally and morally perhaps one of the more upstanding pharmaceutical (drug) companies out there.

Now, having said that, many of the drug companies continue to charge consumers outlandish prices for their drugs even after they have recouped billions of dollars of profits on them and should be generic to give the public a break.

I generally do not like some laws and regulations; however, the drug industry needs to stop gouging the public. I read recently where one company has likely recouped $25 billion from a single drug and still charges premium prices for the drug. Enough said.

If you read my scribblings last year, in any recurring manner, you may remember me always griping about the market being led by five or six stocks. No one else mattered.

They were so big that they had substantial influence on how the various indexes such as the S&P 500 (with 500 stocks in it) performed.

Last year it was not unusual to see the S&P reflecting a really good return, but more than 250 of the stocks in the index were actually DOWN for the year.

Recently, the S&P has only about 50 of its stocks that are down year-to-date in 2021.

Boys and girls, that is a huge difference. Many of those five or six have reported great profits (earnings) this year, but the stock prices actually went down!

I like the change.

If you really want to know how the market is performing, make the indexes all equally weighted. Give each stock the same influence on the index as another stock. Some people would disagree with me; it’s hard to believe I know, but OK. If I were king, they would all be equally weighted; ETFs, too.

OK, it’s May, should we sell and go away?

There is actually no proof that doing that is a really good idea. Sometimes it might work, but not always.

As I write this, the S&P is up about 11.5% to 12%, depending on how you measure, so we really can’t gripe. We are up about 30% in 16 months. Interestingly enough, I don’t pay much attention to returns anymore. Returns have become so subjective as I pointed out above.

OK, so how do we know how we are doing? In many instances, investors are responsible for how they are doing. Many subscribe to asset allocation theories, which basically say that the more risk you take the more money you make, but you can also lose more money. Many investors today may be 60-40, which means 60% in stocks and 40% in bonds or alternatives. That allocation should shut down some of the volatility, but you can still lose money, perhaps just not as much.

In my personal view, if you are 60-40 than you may get 60% of what the stock market returns and maybe a few percentage points in addition with bonds or alternatives. Nothing works perfectly, but many of today’s investors that I know are willing to make smaller returns for smaller volatility.

It is really fun to see your account go up 30%, but it brings tears to your eyes if it goes down 30%.

I had an investor tell me one time that he just wanted the 30 up but not the 30 down.

I was reviewing an account with an investor one time and he said that he did not want to hear that he lost less money than most; instead, he wanted to hear positive returns. I sent him home to his mommy.

What should you be doing now since we may see some inevitable summer doldrum days?

I think you should look at your portfolio and say, “Do I know what I own?”

A friend got in trouble the other day. His wife saw him studying their marriage license. She asked him what he was doing and he told her he was looking for an expiration date. My wife does not think he is funny.

Howie Pentony is a client portfolio manager in Portersville.