Vance Howard is the founder, CEO and portfolio manager of Howard Capital Management.

Russ Alan Prince: What distinguishes Howard Capital Management's mutual funds in today's marketplace?

Vance Howard: Howard Capital Management’s Mutual Funds are a diverse array of actively managed strategies. Our four funds are built to perform across all market environments through a tactical methodology supported by our proprietary quantitative indicators, the HCM-BuyLine and HCM Pivot Points.

As active managers, we have the ability to go 100% to cash. Our funds also can trade in any sector, asset class, style, and sub-sector. This gives us a wide variety of choices so we can aim to make the biggest impact possible on behalf of our investors.

Our fund’s strategies are designed to maximize returns through full market cycles by investing in areas of the market as determined by our quantitative models. The HCM-BuyLine and HCM Pivot Points are the backbone of all four of our proprietary mutual funds. These quant-driven indicators act as a guide for our investment decisions. As long as the HCM-BuyLine is positive, it indicates that investors should stay in the market. When the indicator turns negative, it tells us that the trend of the overall market has changed, and investors should begin scaling out. HCM Pivot Points is a more short-term indicator utilizing technical analysis to seek to identify more intricate buy and sell opportunities within intraday market movement.

• HCM Dynamic Income Fund is our pure fixed income fund built for total return. This is our newest fund with an inception date of June 30, 2022.

• HCM Dividend Sector Plus Fund is a value-driven equity fund built for capital appreciation. This fund contains dividend paying equity securities of companies included in the S&P 500.

• HCM Tactical Growth Fund is a risk-adjusted multi-asset growth fund built for capital growth and long-term appreciation. A broad-based, large-growth fund, our HCM Tactical Growth Fund will have its 10th year anniversary July 30, 2024. 

• HCM Income Plus Fund seeks total return through an objective-driven multi-asset class strategy roughly composed of 35% bonds and about 65% equity.

Prince: What trends in mutual fund investing are you closely monitoring as we progress in the second half of the year?

Howard: The market is broadening out, and we are looking at other areas outside of the Magnificent Seven that have the potential to be very strong investments. As yields and inflation come down, we anticipate investors to come off the sidelines and participate more in the market. Small Caps and the Biotech subsector have the potential for swift moves to the upside, pending favorable economic reports. We are keeping a close eye on inflation, interest rates, and unemployment numbers. Our best hope is the U.S. will stay the course for a soft landing and not pivot into a recession. Though interest rates have increased, the market is holding with the Fed’s attempt to balance inflation and unemployment.

As long as the HCM-BuyLine remains positive, we will stay long in this market. We believe that all pullbacks are buyable as long as the HCM BuyLine remains positive.

Ultimately, our goal is to protect and defend our clients’ assets while seeking upside potential. We understand the time, money, and stress it takes to regain losses during market downturns. It remains our mission to remove emotion and actively manage our assets to strive to achieve our funds’ investment goals.

Prince: In the active versus passive investing debate, where do your allegiances lie, and what drives your preference?

Howard: Our allegiances lie within the active landscape. The investment strategies we deploy at Howard Capital Management, Inc. are dynamic and tactical, making us very active managers. Our methodologies are tactical, and our systems are technical, aiming to remove emotion entirely from the investment process.

We believe tactical management is a powerful, straightforward strategy for navigating market volatility. It is also geared towards driving performance and hedging against inflation. We do not believe in buy-and-hold, nor do we favor asset allocation. We remain active and tactical as our best defense against a market that does not think or feel.

As a fund manager, one of the key advantages of active management is the ability to capitalize on market opportunities. With an active strategy, we can better aim to identify undervalued assets, emerging trends, and potential market shifts, thus allowing our investors a greater opportunity to benefit from timely investment decisions. This agility in response to market dynamics can result in greater returns compared to passive strategies over certain market cycles.

We also believe active management offers a means to manage risk efficiently. By actively monitoring and adjusting portfolios in response to changing market conditions, we can mitigate downside risks, aiming to minimize loss of capital during market downturns. Again, the utilization of our quantitative indicators allows this active management approach to provide investors with a level of downside mitigation and upside potential that may not be achievable through passive strategies alone.

Our active strategies allow us to be adaptable, which we feel is impactful for investment success. Active management enables fund managers to adjust portfolio allocations, sector exposures, and asset classes based on market trends. This flexibility allows investors to navigate market volatility and capitalize on opportunities across various market environments.

Russ Alan Prince is a strategist for family offices and the ultra-wealthy. He has co-authored 70 books in the field, including Making Smart Decisions: How Ultra-Wealthy Families Get Superior Wealth Planning Results.