Strong Year for Global Markets
2025 closed with another powerful year for global markets, even as investors navigated shifting rate expectations, stubborn inflation pockets, and geopolitical noise. Stocks pushed to new highs, bonds staged a meaningful rebound, and AI enthusiasm continued to fuel capital flows. Despite the turbulence, markets proved remarkably resilient, in Party-On mode.
As we enter 2026, that momentum remains firmly intact. The year ahead is shaping up as a dynamic contest between easing financial conditions, elevated valuations, and policy uncertainty — but the consensus is clear: economic expansion continues, the Fed is poised for additional cuts, and equity markets are positioned for another constructive year. Importantly, leadership is broadening beyond the mega‑cap AI names that dominated the last cycle, creating a richer opportunity set for active, tactical investors.
Alternative Investment Strategies
If there were ever a year to rethink traditional 60/40 allocations, 2026 is it. After three straight years of double‑digit S&P 500 gains, the macro landscape is shifting toward conditions where diversification, downside protection, and non‑traditional return engines matter more than ever. Rate cuts, tariff uncertainty, and evolving inflation dynamics are likely to create a choppier path for risk assets — and that’s exactly where alternatives shine.
Alternative strategies offer what beta cannot: smoother return paths, better drawdown control, differentiated income, and alpha sources uncorrelated to traditional markets. Global macro, managed futures, and relative‑value arbitrage thrive in volatile, rotational environments — and 2026 is shaping up to be exactly that. In our view, alternatives aren’t optional this year; they may well become essential. For now, though, it’s Party‑On.
A Breakout Year for Signals Matter
We believe 2026 is a breakout year for Signals Matter because the market is finally rewarding the disciplines we’ve built our strategy around: risk‑aware positioning, tactical flexibility, and data‑driven decision‑making. Volatility is rising, dispersion is widening, and valuations demand real risk management — not passive exposure. This is the environment our process was designed for.
And the results are already showing. Our Portfolio Suggestions are up 4% in the first six trading days of the year — not by chance, but because our portfolio is aligned with the early‑year leadership. Our strategy is diversified, strategically balanced, and tilted toward sectors with clear catalysts. When the market rotates, we rotate with it — and often ahead of it. Having said, as always, past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Our 2026 Line Up
Our 2026 lineup blends high‑quality cyclicals, durable cash‑flow compounders, and secular growth engines. Financials such as TFC (Truist Financial), PNC (PNC Financial Services), USB (U.S. Bancorp), CFG (Citizens Financial Group), SYF (Synchrony Financial), and GS (Goldman Sachs) are positioned to benefit from easing monetary policy and improving credit conditions.
Industrial and aerospace leaders — LMT (Lockheed Martin), BA (Boeing), and SWK (Stanley Black & Decker) — are supported by robust defense spending and renewed investment in manufacturing and infrastructure.
Materials exposure through VAW (Vanguard Materials ETF), FCX (Freeport‑McMoRan), and COPX (Global X Copper Miners ETF) taps directly into global growth, electrification, and the AI‑infrastructure buildout.
Consumer powerhouses LOW (Lowe’s) and ULTA (Ulta Beauty) add stability and pricing strength, while travel demand continues to lift DAL (Delta Air Lines) and LUV (Southwest Airlines).
Finally, innovation drivers ON (ON Semiconductor) and ASML (ASML Holding) provide long‑duration growth without relying solely on mega‑cap tech.
Together, this portfolio is built to participate in upside while staying resilient through volatility — exactly the posture we believe 2026 demands.
RRGs in Action: Mapping Market Rotation
To visualize our positioning, we rely on Relative Rotation Graphs® (RRGs), developed by Julius de Kempenaer of StockCharts.com. These tools map the relative strength and momentum of sectors, asset classes, and individual securities across four quadrants — Leading, Weakening, Lagging, and Improving.
In a year defined by rotation, RRGs give us clarity. They show where capital is flowing, where leadership is emerging, and where opportunities are accelerating. As of early 2026, every security in our portfolio is strengthening, moving from weaker quadrants into Improving or Leading territory — a powerful confirmation of our positioning.
Bottom Line
While traditional wire houses continue to rely on static allocations and backward‑looking assumptions, we take a different path. We treat markets as dynamic, data‑driven systems that require constant measurement, disciplined risk controls, and tactical flexibility. That difference isn’t cosmetic — it’s structural. It’s why our strategy adapts faster, protects better, and captures opportunities others miss.
Signals Matter Products & Access
Signals Matter delivers actively managed, all-weather portfolios designed to perform in both rising and falling markets. With a disciplined allocation between individual stocks and diversified ETFs— that invest long and short—we blend growth potential with volatility control and downside protection, unconstrained by traditional benchmarks.
Signals Matter Market Reports are available free of charge at www.SignalsMatter.com, on LinkedIn, and directly to your inbox when you Sign Up Here. Our actively managed portfolios, recession matrices and more are available to subscribers who Join Here. For access to our hedge fund that trades our portfolios, or to discuss a private equity opportunities, we invite you to Explore Direct Invest and to Book a Meeting with us.
