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Fab S's avatar

Hi Jeff

For a person with significant amount of cash, would buffer ETFs be useful for safely deploying that cash during the current market correction?

Thanks, Michael

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Jeffrey Ptak's avatar

Thanks for your question. Unfortunately, I can't provide financial advice. As I stated in the article, buffers aren't my cup of tea. However, I can understand why as a practical matter they might appeal to investors in certain circumstances. If you're younger and have a lot of run way, I wouldn't really understand the appeal compared to traditional investments. If you're older and for whatever reason can't afford a drawdown, notwithstanding the ballast bonds should offer, then I guess you could make a case. But they're not for me (and I think it's a bad idea to consider these or any other types of products based on where you think we are in a cycle; in reality, we have no idea where we are in a cycle ever, if we're honest with ourselves). fwiw.

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Fab S's avatar

Many thanks for the response. This hypothetical investor is 70 years old and has just begun retirement - hence the allocation and timing of deploying money are particularly significant. Thanks again.

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Robert Huebscher's avatar

Jeff, when you compared the performance of Nasdaq buffer ETFs to a 60/40, what was the “60”? Did you use the Nasdaq index as the 60% stocks?

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Jeffrey Ptak's avatar

No I just used S&P for the stock sleeve. I believe only two of them were Nasdaq buffer ETFs. The rest were S&P.

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