After I posted a while back on recommendation of Muni, it has been 4-5 months, Muni is indeed doing well. The PIMCO closed-end muni funds have generated monthly cash flow for me (roughly 5% tax-exempted return) and some of them have quite a bit price gain (> 10%). e.g. PNI, PYN and PMX. At the same time, the hottest ETF last year ARK series has not done well (YTD is negative).
I believe the overall market has reflected some of the reasons I listed before. Tax increase is on the horizon, interest rate level is low but on the projection of rising and in the U.S., the pandemic is gradually under control with more and more people getting vaccinated.
The market is still at the all-time high, but value stocks have probably more been favored than growth at this moment. Investing in overall market is ok, but be cautious about investing in high risk stocks. ARK series have reflected that.
The tragic death of prominent investor Charles de Vaulx has been a clear sign that traditional value investing is cornered. This has been repeatedly tested. As the SPY 500 heavily tilted towards Tech, now-days the tech giants (GOOG, APPL, FB, MSFT) are more like new value stocks, and we should rethink our strategy along with that line.
Enjoy your quality free time 