Mark Hebner and Tom Cock discuss the ups and downs of 2011. Yes, there’s been a lot of bad news with the economy, GDP growth, housing, European crisis, congressional debates, etc., but as the 12-Step Program teaches, news is random, causing the markets to be random as well. Take a look at the 2011 Year to Date Returns for IFA Index Portfolios and Indexes. Although emerging market equities have historically had large returns on average, emerging value has dropped over 25% year to date. Once again, we show the random nature of the market in the short term is different than the long-term historical trends.