Happy New Year! At the turn of the calendar, we all face important decisions about our future. While you may have already set your personal resolutions, your financial health deserves equal attention. The new year offers a perfect opportunity to take stock of your investment strategy—but in today's complex financial landscape, what exactly should you be evaluating?

First, it is important to know that the financial markets do not understand the calendar. They don't fundamentally transform just because we've turned a page to a new year. The forces that drive market movements—the law of supply and demand—operate independently of the months starting over.

This is why evaluating your investment portfolio based on last year's performance is not a sound investment strategy. Investing is a lifetime endeavor, and not a task that starts fresh each year. In the same sense, do not attempt to forecast the markets for the upcoming year. Markets are counterintuitive, meaning they will do whatever they can to confuse the masses—and you.

If past performance and market predictions are off the table, what aspects of your investment portfolio can you actually control? Successful investing is not about predicting the next bull or bear market, nor is it about finding the next homerun stock. It's about developing a disciplined process with measurable benchmarks.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, a disciplined process isn't simply constructing a fixed pie chart and forgetting about it. That's not a process—it's a strategy of hope, and hope is no strategy at all. A true investment process needs to be as dynamic as the markets themselves, capable of navigating any market environment—bull or bear.

As an investor in the financial markets, there is a lot of misleading information out there. Many investors try to force-fit their personal goals into their investment strategy. While investing is indeed a vehicle for achieving your goals, an effective investment process must be based on objective market principles rather than subjective views and goals.

At Canterbury, we believe in empowering our community through investor education, focusing on what truly matters for your investment portfolio. That's why our previous Stroll articles have explored Adaptive Portfolio Management—a comprehensive investment process designed to help investors pursue long-term growth while defending against devastating bear markets. This disciplined approach combines modern investment tools, proprietary research, and portfolio metrics, enhanced by the strategic implementation of AI technology.

We invite you to learn more about this process. Connect with our team, explore our website, or tune into our "Investor Insights" podcast at www.CanterburyGroup.com/podcast.