Buying growth stocks in an election year is generally ill-advised. During the last presidential election cycle in 2016, growth stocks, on balance, dramatically underperformed the broader markets, whereas value stocks as a whole produced market-beating returns on capital. Going one step further, some growth-oriented subsectors such as biotech were flat out taken to the woodshed over the course of 2016, thanks to the economic and regulatory uncertainties stirred up by the rancor of presidential politics.
The point is that investors arguably shouldn't initiate a new position in a growth-heavy equity in the midst of a politically charged market, without a well-defined major catalyst firmly etched into the calendar. This group of equities, after all, comes with the inherent disadvantage of having to swim against the current of presidential politics and all that comes with it.
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