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The Olympics ended a short while ago and I know of many colleagues, friends and family who stayed up night, after night, watching the events unfold. The Vancouver 2010 games were certainly exciting and as the President of the IOC stated, friendly. The TV coverage showed various sports and multiple times so Olympic novices could easily learn new events. I personally like the Winter Olympics better, so it was a fun two weeks for our household. We didnt miss much of the action and I know thats the same story for many Americans. We lost a few hours of our busy lives. But, it was worth it.

On a different note, on Saturday, folks in the United States (with the exception of Arizona and parts of Indiana) move their clocks forward one hour, thereby losing another hour. The good news is that darkness will no longer greet most Americans when they arrive home from work for the next 6 months or so. The bad news is that we will lose an hour of sleep after we just lost some during the Olympics. All this being said, I began to wonder if as investors, we were losing opportunities to invest during what most can agree is the economys very weak attempt at a recovery.

This week was the 1 year anniversary of the Dow having hit its 12 year low of 6,440 during the recession. So, as we begin today, with the Dow sitting at 10, 552, what should investors do and did we lose valuable opportunities. To answer the second question of missing or losing opportunities, certainly, if investors sold out of equities and have not returned, opportunities have been missed. It is completely understandable that with the level of fear and anxiety investors faced early last year, that some folks would abandon equities in favor of safer investments. One year ago, depending on what news you were watching or reading, it seemed like the financial world was coming to an end and the obvious reaction was for investors to preserve what they had left and pull over to the sideline. It was the sudden downpour which occurs while driving. Normally, we can continue driving carefully and eventually, the rain lets up, but this financial storm was different. The downpours kept coming and many investors no longer felt safe navigating on the financial highway.

Well, continuing with my weather analogy, the hard rain has stopped, although, the skies are not completely clear and there is always a potential for more rain. With that forecast, the answer in hindsight to the second question is yes, investors have missed opportunities in the first phase of this paltry economic recovery. If funds which you previously targeted for equities were pulled out of the market and you have not gotten back in, you did miss a fairly significant bounce. However far 10,552 is from 6,440, its still a long way from 14,200, the Dows high point reached in October 2007. So, investors with cash to invest are wondering if we are headed back in the direction of 6,440 or 14,200? In my opinion, we are not going to repeat the gains of the past 12 months. I believe that the markets have reached some sort of plateau, from which they will move slightly up and down, depending on the strength and pace of the recovery. Therefore, my answer to the first question of whether further opportunities exist, is yes.

Experts can argue whether or not the worst is over, but I believe that it is. However, significant issues are staring right down at us imminently. A few of these include the health care debate, housing recovery or not and continued high unemployment. In spite of this, I believe that the investing future, looking out 3-5 years looks better than we are positioned today. In my discussions with clients, we are encouraging them to wade back into the equity waters. I tell them not to expect an immediate return and to even expect some sort of a pullback, perhaps later in the spring or early summer. But, businesses have slashed costs and unfortunately, employees. Many firms are discovering that they can be as productive with less people. If this trend continues, and I believe it will, we will be witnessing a jobless recovery. This will not lead to a rapid recovery in the housing market, but as long as interest rates stay relatively low, housing can begin climbing out of its long slump. However, if inflation rears its ugly head, all bets are off as the Federal Reserve will be forced to raise rates, thereby threatening the housing recovery, which arguably hasnt yet begun in earnest.

Keep focused on Washington over the next few weeks approaching Easter. We will either have some sort of health care bill, or we will witness congressional incompetency at its best.