As we turn the page on 2020, the word that comes to mind is “hopeful.” Hopeful that the vaccines will allow businesses to open fully again and that people will feel more and more comfortable socializing and traveling again. Hopeful that we won’t forget the lessons learned through this COVID crisis: that we need each other; that the simple things in life are vital; that we need to learn to slow down so we can rejuvenate and stay healthy; that no matter how hard we try we can’t always control things and the best we can sometimes do is make the “best next choice.”

The investment markets continue to be hopeful as well it seems. A recent article indicated that strength in the equity markets is fairly broad, which is a good sign. Of course, there are still concerns about overconcentration in the mega cap stocks within indices, about the rich valuations created by increasingly optimistic economic growth projections (that may or may not play out based on how virus containment goes), about how fast policies will be enacted by the new administration that may either boost near-term growth or start to constrict longer-term growth, and about what might happen with inflation and long-term interest rates in light of the growing national debt.

So, we stay vigilant—not reactionary, but vigilant. Focusing on the long-term and keeping the short-term obstacles in perspective and sometimes even using them to our advantage.