Co-Founders' Monthly Note For Financial Advisors

October 2026:

A Sideways Summer That Tested Traditional Portfolios

Most forecasts assume the market is going somewhere. Every year starts with a list of them. Where rates will end up. What oil will do. How far stocks can run. Up or down, each one picks a direction.

This summer, the market mostly went nowhere. Stocks stalled after a strong start. Bonds fell at the same time. The part of the portfolio meant to provide stability didn’t.

Navigating that on forecasts would have meant calling three things at once:

1. The 10-year Treasury yield breaking above 5%.
2. Oil rallying hard on top of it.
3. Stocks stalling without ever breaking down.

We would rather respond to what markets are doing than depend on calling all three.

This month’s Co-Founders’ Note looks at a summer that tested traditional portfolios, why the ability to adapt matters more than the ability to predict, and what a systematic investing process does when markets rise, fall, or go nowhere.

But first, here’s a summary of what transpired in the markets in September.