RZH Insights: It’s Time to Sell Stocks

This bull market has been wonderful – but it’s time to sell stocks. Yes, you read that correctly. I’m guessing “sell stocks” was not a headline you expected to see from me. But I probably got your attention and hopefully enticed a lot of people to read this article.

If you are a client of RZH Advisors, you know that we have been advocating for intentionally selling stocks throughout much of the second quarter and into the summer. The stock market hit another all-time high last week and is up more than 58% since April 2025.1

We highly suggest selling some stocks – not because we have lost faith in them, but because stocks have been so good to us.

We aren’t worried that the market has become too bullish or overheated. We are making sure your portfolio hasn’t. There is an important difference between an overheated market and an overheated portfolio.

Left unchecked, a 60/40 portfolio grew to approximately 69/31 over the last 16 months as equity allocations have appreciated beyond their intended targets.2 Some individual positions have become disproportionately large. Some portfolios need liquidity for upcoming spending. In other cases, strong markets have given us the opportunity to reposition capital, manage risk, and replenish the safer assets that will fund future lifestyle needs.

Our goal at RZH is to help you Accelerate Life Enjoyment by Optimizing Your Wealth. Living life to the fullest requires having the confidence and liquidity to enjoy your wealth regardless of what markets do next. When markets provide exceptional gains, we believe in intentionally capturing a portion of them to fund the plan and rebalance risk. It is why we remain steadfast followers of one of our most important mantras: “Never Take Growth for Granted.”

So, when you see us selling stocks during a strong market, don’t mistake discipline for pessimism.

This is financial planning driving investment decisions: Not CNBC pundits. Not a forecast. Not fear. Not politics. Not a new Fed Chair. Not the price of oil. Rather..YOUR PLAN. This is what being a goal-focused, planning-driven investor looks like.

OUR INVESTMENT PHILOSOPHY REMAINS THE SAME

  • We remain convinced that, for capital which will not be needed for many years, owning outstanding global enterprises – primarily U.S.-based – remains one of the most powerful mechanisms ever created for building and preserving real wealth.
  • We remain believers in human ingenuity, technological advancement, entrepreneurship, and economic progress. Innovation continues at a pace that would have been difficult to imagine even a decade ago, while artificial intelligence is driving enormous investment and productivity gains.
  • We continue to believe that the economy cannot be consistently forecast, nor can markets be reliably timed. Our strategy does not depend upon doing either.

TODAY’S REALITY

When we speak with clients, one theme dominates. It is usually some variation of:

“The world is crazy. Politics are crazy. This stock market is crazy.”

These sentiments may or may not be any more justified today than they were during countless other unsettling periods in history. But there is an important reality being obscured by all the noise:

Fundamentally, this is an extraordinarily well-supported bull market.

Consider what is happening beneath the headlines:

  • For years, diversification occasionally felt like owning everything except what was working. Today, diversification is increasingly becoming a source of added return.
  • Market leadership has broadened tremendously. The Magnificent Seven stocks – which carried much of the market for the last several years – were collectively down approximately 2% through mid-year, while the other 493 companies in the S&P 500 were collectively up approximately 15%.3
  • Similarly, year-to-date, the tech-oriented Russell 1000 Growth Index is only up 6.2%.  However, the brick-and-mortar Russell 1000 Value Index is up 24%.4   This illustrates that even though the market is concentrated in technology stocks, the rest of the market is advancing and broadening out.
  • Corporate earnings have surged past expectations. Reuters/LSEG reported approximately 31% year-over-year Q2 earnings growth, with earnings growth across 10 of the 11 S&P 500 sectors.5
  • Revenue growth has also exceeded expectations, providing additional fundamental support for earnings.
  • Remarkably, despite rising stock prices, the S&P 500’s forward P/E ratio fell from approximately 22.2 at year-end to 20.4 as earnings grew faster than stock prices.6
  • Market participation has expanded well beyond mega-cap technology. Small-cap stocks have substantially outperformed large caps, value stocks have soared, investment real estate is rising and international equities have also participated strongly.
  • Inflows of foreign investment money has been substantial.
  • Analysts have raised earnings expectations – an important departure from the more typical pattern of estimates being revised downward as the year progresses.
  • Inflation and interest rates have moderated from their recent peaks, providing a more constructive backdrop for businesses and investors.

In other words, stock prices aren’t simply rising because investors are willing to pay more for the same earnings.

The earnings themselves are growing – dramatically.  And long-term, stock prices follow earnings.

And yes, I will mention one other data point:

Most of our clients know that I made a forecast just after the federal elections in 2024.  I predicted that the stock market would double within five years.  The trajectory for this remains ahead of pace. 

I don’t expect the path from here to be straight. It never is.

Which brings us to…

THE INEVITABLE

There will be a recession. There will be a bear market. There will be geopolitical crises. There will be scary headlines. And someday this bull market will end – because every bull market eventually does.

We have no idea when. Nor does anyone else.

Our job is not to guess when the music will stop.

Our job is to help ensure that when it does, that day is irrelevant to your financial security – and that your life doesn’t miss a beat.

That is why we sell stocks in a bull market. That is why we maintain liquidity.  That is why we plan.

And, paradoxically, that is why we can remain so optimistic about owning stocks for the long run.

THE BOTTOM LINE

We remain enormously enthusiastic about the future.

Markets will inevitably encounter setbacks. Uncertainty will never disappear. The headlines will always give investors something to worry about. But beneath that noise, businesses continue to innovate, productivity continues to advance, earnings continue to grow, and human ingenuity continues to create opportunities we cannot yet imagine.

Our faith in the future has always been greater than our fear of the next market decline.

We believe the years ahead will continue to reward patient, disciplined owners of great businesses, and we are excited to participate alongside you. Our job is not to predict every turn in the road. It is to keep your portfolio aligned with your life, your goals, and the extraordinary opportunities we believe the future will bring.

We are equally enthusiastic about the future of RZH Advisors. Our firm is stronger and more capable than ever. The depth of talent across our team is the greatest it has ever been, and our integration of new technologies, including artificial intelligence, is driving meaningful advances in productivity, investment management, and the sophistication of our financial planning.

But technology will never replace what matters most to us: knowing you, understanding your family, protecting those you care about, anticipating what you need, and helping you use your wealth to live an extraordinary life.

All of us at RZH are extraordinarily motivated to make your life the best – and financially safest – it can be. We deeply value your trust and partnership and remain honored to serve you every day.

Best regards,

Carl J. Zuckerberg, CFP®, AIF®, CIMA®  

Principal, Chief Investment Strategist

1. Performance of Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (“VOO”) as measured from April 8, 2025 (closing price $450.02) through August 14, 2026 (closing price $713.61).

2. YCharts. Hypothetical portfolio for the time period April 7, 2025, through August 14, 2026. Assuming a starting allocation of 60% equities (represented by the S&P Total Return Index) and 40% fixed income (represented by Bloomberg US Aggregate Index) the allocation would have shifted to 69% equities and 31% fixed income. Assumes dividend reinvestments and any taxes owed paid from an alternate account. Investors cannot directly purchase an index.

3. 2026 Q2 Market Letter: It’s The Vibe. Roberston Stephens. July 9, 2026.

4. Equity Index Performance for week ending August 14, 2026. Franklin Templeton.

5. US stock market could ride earnings strength to more gains after S&P 500 hits record. Reuters. August 5, 2026.

6. 2026 Mid-Year Outlook: U.S. Stocks and Economy. Charles Schwab. June 3, 2026.

© RZH Advisors 2026

Important Disclosures