In just a few short weeks, Americans will head to the polls to elect the next President of the United States.

While the outcome is unknown, one thing is for certain: There will be a steady stream of opinions from pundits and prognosticators about how the election will impact the stock market.  As explained in the below graph from Dimensional, investors would be well-served to avoid the temptation to make significant changes to a long-term investment plan based on upon these sorts of predictions.

Additionally, this short 4 minute video from Vanguard aids investors in shifting their focus from the short term impact of the election to focusing on the long term.  Decades of historical data tell us that presidential elections typically don't have a long-term effect on market performance.

This data does not suggest an obvious pattern of long-term stock market performance based upon which party holds the Oval Office. The key takeaway here is that over the long run, the market has provided substantial returns regardless of who controlled the executive branch.

For more resources on this topic, please contact us.

Dave Butler, a Vice President at Dimensional, shares a client's experiences of working with an advisory firm and how it helped him focus on the things he can control.

"I’m focused on the things that will really impact my long‑term financial future: spending less and saving more. These are two things I can control (unlike when the Fed is going to raise interest rates)."

Click the image to download the PDF.

This presentation features 10 decisions that can help investors target long-term wealth in the capital markets.

Click the image below to view the presentation.

Can investors predict when to buy and sell securities? In this video, Jim Davis, PhD at Dimensional, runs more than 780 tests on data from 15 stock markets to test this theory.

Check it out today under Videos.