The iPhone 15
Why Elections Don’t Influence Investment Decisions
Hard to believe, but it has been more than 17 years since Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone on June 11th, 2007 (Dow 11,405).
The iPhone (later joined by other smartphones) revolutionized not just phone calls, but also transformed, in many ways unimaginable at the time, every aspect of our lives from text messages to getting a ride, from social media to banking, from e-mail to even how we set the temperature in our homes. Today’s iPhones can send emergency text messages from anywhere in the world via satellite and with a click of a button can take better pictures than most traditional cameras.
And while we’ve come to expect a new and improved iPhone each year, depending on how you want to measure, today’s phones are 20X more powerful than the first iPhone.
To make an even more stunning comparison, today’s iPhone is 5000 X faster than the Cray-2 Supercomputer that, when released in 1985 (Dow 1,537) took up an entire room and cost over $12,000,000.1
But what does this all have to do with elections, especially THIS election?!
Whatever the outcome of the election, whatever fallout follows, and whatever misguided policies come from the new president and Congress, Apple Computers and the 10s of thousands of other companies in the United States will continue finding new and innovative ways to make better, faster, and more profitable products.
As such, in our roles of long-term investors, we won’t so much as blink an eye.
This is not to say that elections don’t matter, nor that we should take lightly our duties as citizens, but simply that as investors, election outcomes are a moot point.
That said, with the markets again at all-time highs, during our fall review meeting, we will be discussing options for taking at least a few of our proverbial chips off the table. In addition, because tax rates are scheduled to increase at the end of next year, we will also be discussing how to take some proverbial tax chips off the table.
Any opinions are those of Landon Vick and not necessarily those of RJFS or Raymond James. The foregoing information has been obtained from sources considered to be reliable, but we do not guarantee that it is accurate or complete; it is not a statement of all available data necessary for making an investment decision and it does not constitute a recommendation. Raymond James and its advisors do not offer tax or legal advice. You should discuss any tax or legal matters with the appropriate professional. Be sure to contact a qualified professional regarding your particular situation before making any investment or withdrawal decisions.
1 Adobe. (2022, November 8). Fast forward: Comparing 1980s supercomputers to modern smartphones. Adobe Blog. https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2022/11/08/fast-forward-comparing-1980s-supercomputer-to-modern-smartphone#:~:text=The%20Apple%20iPhone%2012%2C%20for,mobile%20device%20into%20a%20scanner
