Money in the market from mid-2020 to now has bounced back sharply from what Chris Cook called the “COVID crater,” the first-quarter 2020 financial meltdown that accompanied the shock of the pandemic shutdown.

Now comes the harder part: finding winners in a field of investments where everybody already got a blue ribbon. The folks at Gilbert & Cook, wealth managers in West Des Moines, didn’t have any specific stocks to pick but did note in their midyear review of economic conditions that opportunity awaits investors.

“The S&P 490 is just starting to wake up, and we actually see good value beyond that,” said Chris Cook, chief investment strategist. But is this new, something beyond the S&P 500 index of companies?

Actually, it’s something Cook crafted, a subset of the S&P 500. There are the top 10 members of the S&P 500 – such as Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook – which account for 30% of its valuation. And then there are the other 490 stocks left for the remainder of the index. They have not rebounded from the pandemic as quickly as have the top 10. Case in point: The S&P 10 sport a price-to-earnings ratio of 30, while the S&P 490 carry a PE of 18.9. Clearly, there’s catching to do.

Of course, there are no sure bets. But there is a very good chance of volatility and a pullback that could trim some enthusiasm. Since 1980, the market has had pullbacks of an average of 14% every year. So far this year its heaviest retraction has been 4%.

Brandon Grimm, Gilbert & Cook portfolio manager, said fundamentals of the market appear to be strong enough to keep investors out of trouble. But now that the market rise has eased up, he said investors should use this time to review their portfolio and de-leverage perceived risk.

Also at play midyear are President Joe Biden’s tax tweaks that are part of his recently unveiled American Families Plan. These are mere proposals at this moment, but Megan Rosenstiel, adviser at Gilbert & Cook, said that if they come to pass they would drop capital gain tax rates in favor of a higher ordinary income rate of as much as 39.6% for high-income individuals. And of course, investors are still working through the impact of late 2019 legislation upon inherited IRAs (called stretch IRAs when they are continued upon the death of the original account holder).

As ever, then, there is much to think about money-wise as we move to the second half of the year. But do enjoy the summer. Find a good beach book.

In the summer of 2020, Matt Choon sat in his Brooklyn apartment surrounded by piles of boxes of CBD gummies and bags of designer clothing. He spent years trying to turn his e-commerce business Potion from a passion project into a sustainable revenue source, trekking through snow to beg bodegas to sell his products and throwing house parties just to get photos of guests with his brand’s logo. But collaborators had come and gone, and now it was just 24-year-old Choon, his roommate and a recently laid-off neighbor he hired to help with shipping Potion orders.

In an effort to really ramp up the business, Choon turned to TikTok.

Suddenly, a few videos of the gummies and clothing at pop-up shops and street fairs with captions like “secret vintage designer pop up in NYC” changed everything. He watched as videos racked up thousands of views and lines formed down the streets. READ MORE