Every year as the summer months draw near their end, LPL Financial hosts its annual conference for financial advisors. While the conference is an excellent opportunity for advisors to expand upon professional interests, discover ways to enhance their impact on clients, and connect with industry experts — learning is a two-way street.

Like a stubbed toe, pullbacks in the market are inevitable, something investors tend to forget during periods of low volatility.

After the sharp August 5 decline, equities are nearing an attractive entry point. LPL’s Strategic and Tactical Asset Allocation Committee (STAAC) maintains its tactical neutral stance on equities, while actively monitoring signs of bottoming. LPL Research continues to preach patience before buying this dip. Bottoming is a process.

Investors had a healthy appetite for risk so far this year as a so-called potential soft landing has been factored in. We have an economy with rising wages, decelerating inflation, and a Federal Reserve (Fed) on the cusp of cutting rates.

The first half of the year was a challenging environment for a lot of fixed income markets, especially higher-quality markets.