Now this is funny. I don't think so because it's a joke - it's not - but because it illustrates in a tangible way the fact that government is very often a destructive force in the world, not a beneficial one.
The thesis of the fund is simple: legislative uncertainty, the state of affairs in which investors, business people, etc. are unable to gauge the future of a given investment due to the possibility that government will invent some new jackass law that will affect said investment somehow, is bad for stock market returns. Therefore, it stands to reason that when Congress is in recess and no new laws are being proposed or voted on, the rules of the game are known and financial moves can be made with a greater degree of certainty.
So then, when Congress is in session, the fund reduces its investors' exposure to equities, increasing it when Congress goes home.
Just to add a few more laughs to the idea (or maybe tears, given the present), there is this paragraph on the fund's about page:
While 43 years of data is significant, no investment strategy works all of the time. Although it has not happened often over the past 43 years, there could be years where the market responds much more positively on days when Congress is in session as compared to days when they are out of session. For example, in 1997, Congress enacted significant tax cuts, including a cut in capital gains taxes generally. In that year, the annualized average price increase on the days when Congress was in session was 59.5% (an average daily gain of 0.18% or 18 basis points) as compared to an annualized average price loss of -4.6% (an average daily loss of -0.02% or 2 basis points) when Congress was out of session. [emphasis mine]
The fund requires a $1,000 minimum buy in to open an account. I'm thinking about it...
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