{"id":4249,"date":"2026-07-06T08:00:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T08:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/towerwealthadvisory\/?p=4249"},"modified":"2026-07-02T15:53:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T15:53:23","slug":"stepping-back-the-30000-foot-market-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/towerwealthadvisory\/2026\/07\/06\/stepping-back-the-30000-foot-market-view\/","title":{"rendered":"Stepping Back: The 30,000-Foot Market View"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Stepping Back: The 30,000-Foot Market View<\/h3>

One of the recurring challenges in writing my\/our<\/span> quarterly commentary is that by the time it reaches publication, parts already feel dated. This feels especially pronounced today as the pace of change appears to be accelerating.<\/p>

After the S&P 500 declined by roughly 10 percent by the end of March, it took just 11 trading sessions to fully recover \u2014 among the fastest recoveries on record. As one market observer noted, \u201cfor situation monitors, the whiplash is a thing to behold\u2026for everyone else, they may not have even noticed.<\/em>\u201d More notable was the speed at which the narrative reversed. By late March, many big-tech valuations appeared more fairly valued; by late April, they again appeared stretched.<\/p>

The increasing frequency of such rapid shifts raises a broader question: Does this reflect a changing market regime?<\/p>

Part of the explanation may lie in how the investing landscape itself has evolved over recent decades. Information is now disseminated globally in seconds. Combined with trading automation and declining transaction costs, this has contributed to a significant increase in market activity. In the late 1980s, the New York Stock Exchange averaged around 500 million shares traded daily; by 2020, this figure had doubled to over one billion.1<\/sup><\/p>

Participation has also become democratized. Building a diversified portfolio once required meaningful capital. Today, internet access and low-cost, diversified products have lowered barriers to entry. In 1990, equity and investment fund units represented just six percent of Canadian household assets. In 2025, they accounted for over 25 percent.2 <\/sup>This has also influenced investor behaviour. The average holding period for a stock, once spanning years, is now measured in months.<\/p>

At the same time, market structure has shifted. What many may not realize is that the public company universe has contracted. U.S.-listed companies have halved from about 8,000 in 1997 to 4,000 today.3<\/sup> Yet global market capitalization has expanded from about $50 trillion in 2011 to over $140 trillion today, with the rise of dominant U.S. and Asian corporates.4<\/sup> Despite the shrinking public company universe, the range of investment products has expanded significantly. ETFs and derivatives now allow far more robust portfolio construction. Private equity and other alternatives, once largely reserved for institutions and ultra-high-networth investors, are more broadly accessible.<\/p>

Meanwhile, even as total market values have risen, capital sitting on the sidelines has grown. U.S. money market funds have doubled to $8.2 trillion from their $4 trillion pandemic levels.5<\/sup><\/p>

Taken together, these shifts raise important questions: how should markets behave in an environment defined by faster information flow, lower barriers to entry, broader investor participation, yet fewer public companies and deeper sidelined liquidity? Do these changes imply a permanent shift in market behaviour? Are today\u2019s valuations a reflection of these forces in action? It is plausible that markets have entered a period where sharper but shorter bursts of volatility and rapid narrative reversals become more common. Perhaps the anatomy of future bull and bear markets will also differ from those of the past.<\/p>

At the same time, it\u2019s important not to lose sight of the broader context. If you invested $100,000 in the S&P\/TSX Composite Index 30 years ago, it would have grown to over $1.4M today.* Markets may evolve and narratives may shift, but long-term wealth creation has remained remarkably consistent. Indeed, it may be the golden age of investing, where more investors participate in one of the greatest wealth-creation periods in financial history.<\/p>

A personal note:<\/strong> Just as I\u2019ve\/we\u2019ve<\/span> stepped back from the headlines for this commentary, I\/we<\/span> hope you, too, will find time to step away this summer. I\/We<\/span> remain here taking care of things on your behalf and am\/are available should you require assistance. Enjoy the sun!<\/p>

*With reinvested dividends.<\/span>
1. www.visualcapitalist.com\/the-decline-of-long-term-investing\/<\/span>
2.https:\/\/www.nbc.ca\/content\/dam\/bnc\/taux-analyses\/analyseeco\/mkt-view\/market_view_250313.pdf<\/span>
3. https:\/\/data.worldbank.org\/indicator\/CM.MKT.LDOM.NO?locations=US<\/span>
4. https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Market_capitalization<\/span><\/pre>
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One of the recurring challenges in writing my\/ our quarterly commentary is that by the time it reaches publication,  arts already feel dated. This feels especially pronounced today as the pace of change appears to be accelerating.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":3017,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[236,238,17,240,237,45,145],"class_list":["post-4249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-capital-gains","tag-financial-freedom","tag-financial-planning","tag-september","tag-wealth-advisory","tag-wealth-management","tag-wealth-planning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/towerwealthadvisory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/towerwealthadvisory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/towerwealthadvisory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/towerwealthadvisory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/towerwealthadvisory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4249"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/towerwealthadvisory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4257,"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/towerwealthadvisory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4249\/revisions\/4257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/towerwealthadvisory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/towerwealthadvisory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/towerwealthadvisory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advisor.wellington-altus.ca\/towerwealthadvisory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}