The year 2020 has not been a good year for a lot of people. Knock on wood, I am not one of them.

A lot of people have died, lost their jobs; for many this year has been a horror story.

I have been fortunate. The stock market has been roaring, business is great, my employees and I have been healthy; for me, it just does not get much better.

Now, having said that, I hate staying at home; my wife and I used to travel. We have had two trips canceled. I love going to dinner with friends, not any more. You get what I am talking about.

This COVID-19 issue, the negative jobs market, this will all pass. I just do not know when.

I am in the optimism business. I must stay focused. I can tell you one thing, any of you who work hard, save your money and invest are not having any financial issues. Not everyone can do those things, but those that do are not immersed in no-money issues.

OK, let us talk about the market. Depending on where you look, the market is ending up looking just fine.

I use the Standard and Poor’s 500 stock index as my measurement. The actual price change in 2020 was about up 16%. Not a bad year.

How did you do? It depends.

About 200 stocks in the index posted negative returns for the year. They were down in value! The big boys, five or six of them, led the way. If you did not own them, it would have been difficult to make any money.

Many of you owned the individual stocks; some owned them by investing in mutual funds. Speaking of mutual funds, many had incredible years. You may own one of them. Returns of +50% were not unusual. Returns of under the market returns were also not unusual.

In my view, investors who were diversified likely did OK. That is your only defense. You have to be diversified and spread out that risk.

The NASDAQ, over the counter index was up over 40%. That is where many of the big boys live. Mid-cap and small-cap stocks under performed the S and P.

Again, if you owned something like utilities you may have actually lost money.

If you owned gold or silver, good for you. Gold was up about 24% and silver perhaps as much as 40%. Many investors tend to use precious metals as a hedge, and some of us just buy them because we think they are going up.

Oil and oil stocks were mostly a disaster. They have recovered somewhat but still have ways to go.

How bad was it Howie? Exxon was at one time the largest company in the world. It is not in the top 10 currently.

The price of crude is just now getting back to $50 a barrel which is what it takes, if you are a producer, to break even. Many companies went out of business and there will be many more. Mergers are happening also.

How about the travel industry? Everything from airlines to cruise lines suffered. The cynic in me loves the airline problems. They ripped you and me off for years.

Retail, which is struggling anyway, was decimated by COVID-19 and job losses. Who knows what the numbers are, but retail bankruptcies have to be above 10,000 stores?

I have been talking for months about the changes we are going to see. I would wager that the old department stores are history. A few will survive. I am not going to name names but you know who the ones in trouble are. I think, I do not know, that if I had to wager, the department stores who deal with “wealthy” people will likely survive.

Boys and girls, if you think technology is taking over, it has already taken. Our lives, due to technology, are going to change even more. For those of you who do not like change, I think it is coming even more quickly and we have no clue what is going to change in the next year or so. I’m talking now.

Good luck to you all. Work hard, save your money, and invest.

My wife and I were having a glass of wine the other night and she said “I love you.” I asked her if that was the wine talking? She said, “No, it was me talking to the wine.” She thinks she is funny.

Howie Pentony is a Portersville client portfolio manager.