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"If voting made any difference, they wouldn't let us do it," Mark Twain once quipped. All joking aside, as we head toward a pivotal U.S. presidential contest in November, investors may be worried that a contentious election season, or a certain outcome, could push the U.S. economy into recession and send markets into a tailspin. But a look at history shows that presidential elections have made essentially no difference when it comes to long-term investment returns. What has mattered is staying invested.
Looking at election results back to 1932, U.S. stocks have trended up regardless of whether a Republican or a Democrat won the White House. Investors who held on for at least a year were rewarded for their patience, though they had to withstand heightened volatility...
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