Do Stock Market Ups & Downs Scare You? LFG Daily - February 19, 2026

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At Lloyd Financial Group, we’re constantly striving to give you more insight, more clarity, and more confidence when it comes to your money. Our Chief Investment Officer, Colin Symons, now delivers his own daily newsletter, offering deep analysis and a detailed outlook on the ever-changing investment world called Symons Says. Check it out and subscribe if you want a very detailed, daily analysis of the investment world. Colin has amazing content.

Meanwhile, the LFG Daily will continue to bring you quick, actionable summaries — blending market updates with financial planning and tax strategies to help you make smarter decisions every day. Together, they’re the perfect one-two punch: Colin brings the deep dive into Investments, we bring the daily edge.

Luke Lloyd, CEO Lloyd Financial Group

The Back-Door Roth IRA: A Strategic Move for High Earners

If you’ve built a successful career or business, chances are you’ve also built an income that disqualifies you from contributing directly to a Roth IRA. Ironically, the very success you worked for can block you from one of the most powerful tax-free wealth-building tools in the tax code.

That’s where the Back-Door Roth IRA comes in.

For high earners, business owners, and professionals, this strategy can quietly compound into hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax-free retirement assets.

What Is a Back-Door Roth IRA?

A Back-Door Roth IRA is not a special account. It’s a strategy.

It involves:

1. Making a non-deductible contribution to a Traditional IRA

2. Converting that amount to a Roth IRA shortly after

Because there are no income limits on Roth conversions, high earners can legally bypass the income limits that prevent direct Roth contributions.

Why Roth Money Is So Powerful

Roth IRAs offer three major advantages:

• Tax-free growth

• Tax-free withdrawals in retirement

• No required minimum distributions (RMDs) during your lifetime

  
  

That last point is critical. Unlike Traditional IRAs, which force withdrawals starting at age 73, Roth IRAs allow your money to continue compounding untouched.

In an era of rising federal debt and uncertain tax policy, having tax-free buckets of money gives you flexibility and control.

2026 Contribution Limits

For 2026, you can contribute:

• $7,500 per year if under 50

• $8,600 per year if 50 or older

  
  

It may not sound like much—but over 20–30 years of tax-free compounding, it can become substantial.

For married couples, that means potentially $14,000–$16,000 per year moved into tax-free territory.

The Pro-Rata Rule: The Catch

Here’s where things get tricky.

If you already have pre-tax money in Traditional IRAs, the IRS applies the pro-rata rule. That means when you convert funds to Roth, the conversion is treated as a mix of taxable and non-taxable dollars.

Example:

• $93,000 pre-tax IRA

• $7,000 non-deductible contribution

• Total IRA balance: $100,000

  
  

If you convert $7,000, only 7% is tax-free. The remaining 93% is taxable.

This is the mistake many investors make—they don’t account for existing IRA balances.

How to Solve the Pro-Rata Problem

For business owners or executives with access to a 401(k), there may be a clean solution:

Roll pre-tax IRA assets into your 401(k) plan (if allowed).401(k)s are not included in the pro-rata calculation.

Once the IRA balance is reduced to only the non-deductible contribution, you can convert cleanly with little to no tax impact.

This is where proper coordination between your CPA and financial advisor becomes critical.

Who Should Consider a Back-Door Roth?

This strategy often makes sense for:

• High-income professionals

• Business owners

• Dual-income households above Roth income limits

• Investors who expect higher taxes in the future

• Anyone wanting tax diversification

If you believe tax rates will be higher 10–20 years from now, paying a small amount of tax today for tax-free growth tomorrow can be a powerful hedge.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Forgetting to file IRS Form 8606

• Waiting too long between contribution and conversion

• Ignoring the pro-rata rule

• Converting during a high-income year without planning

• Not coordinating with your tax professional

A Back-Door Roth is simple in concept—but sloppy execution can create unnecessary taxes.

The Bigger Planning Picture

The Back-Door Roth IRA isn’t about chasing a loophole.

It’s about building tax flexibility.

In retirement planning, you want three buckets:

• Taxable accounts

• Tax-deferred accounts

• Tax-free accounts

Having all three gives you control over your income in retirement, your Social Security taxation, Medicare premiums, and legacy planning.

For high earners who feel “locked out” of Roth contributions, the back door is still wide open.

You just have to know how to walk through it strategically.

Don’t leave your financial future up to chance. Let’s build a plan that gives you confidence today and peace of mind for tomorrow. Click here to schedule a meeting — I’m here to help you take the next step toward financial freedom.

Colin Symons, CIO Lloyd Financial Group

I see many people going crazy over intraday swings up or down. That’s totally fine, if you’re a day trader. You may not want to be, though, as most estimates show 90-97% lose money, particularly as you expand your time horizon.

At LFG, we don’t day trade, nor do we swing trade, holding positions for a few days. Instead, we try to concentrate on holding positions for a year or more. This has several benefits. For a start, if you’re trying to manage money at a larger scale, the constant drag from frictional costs can really start to hurt. Swinging big dollars in and out can take money out of your pocket and into market-makers.

Down to a more basic level, holding for over a year really helps taxable accounts. Some of that is avoiding the transaction costs of frequent trading. The biggest difference is the tax benefits. Short-term capital gains are taxed at a 10-37% federal rate, while long-term gains are taxed at 0-20%. Especially over time, that’s a huge difference.

To put it all together, let’s assume you make 8% a year for 10 years. The long-term holder will have some costs, so let’s say they end up with 7% after costs. The short-term trader will have bigger costs, and based on estimates, let’s say they end up with 4% after costs. Maybe that sounds rough, but based on a variety of studies, that’s actually on the optimistic side. The chart above tells the story over 10 years, starting with $100,000.

Now, this does come in degrees. In general, the more you trade, the less you should expect to keep. Why trade at all, then? Some people follow that philosophy, and since 2009 that’s largely been a winning strategy. Over various times and places, though, it hasn’t worked so dependably. That’s why we look at growth, inflation, and liquidity to let us know how much risk we’re taking.

Speaking of risk, it’s quite a bit lower when you’re talking about indexes versus a single stock. A broad market like the S&P 500 tends to vary by about 15% over an average year, while an individual stock varies around 38%. Of course, you have very different volatilities based on characteristics like beta and size. This does increase the potential effectiveness of being more active with individual stocks, though transaction costs still matter quite a bit.

So, we try not to overtrade. Since markets and stocks don’t move in a smooth line, that implies you have to ride the waves up and down. Honestly, it can be worse than that, as stocks may or may not trend. We’ve had big winners that did poorly for a while. Having a system to survive those waves really ups the chances you can survive and thrive. It’s a tough business, but fortunately quite remunerative if done right.

FOMC Minutes were modestly hawkish but fairly ignorable, with expectations on jobs and the economy improving while inflation is still expected to be sticky.

Industrial Production was 0.7% m/m vs. exp. 0.3%, lifting the annual pace to 2.3% Y/Y, the best since 2022.

Durable Goods Orders were down -1.4% m/m, following last month’s monster print. Core Orders were up 0.9% m/m vs. exp. 0.3%, for the ninth increase in a row. That gets the Y/Y number to 5%, the best since 2022.

Oil is probing recent highs around $66 as fears of conflict with Iran remain.

A weak 20Y T auction didn’t help sentiment in the Treasury space.

Jobless Claims, Balance of Trade, and LEI, today.

What does it all mean? We remain in a high fear environment, with volatility remaining sticky.

Don’t leave your financial future up to chance. Let’s build a plan that gives you confidence today and peace of mind for tomorrow. Click here to schedule a meeting — I’m here to help you take the next step toward financial freedom.

Disclosures/Regulation:

This content is intended to provide general information about Lloyd Financial. It is not intended to offer or deliver investment advice in any way. Information regarding investment services are provided solely to gain an understanding of our investment philosophy, our strategies and to be able to contact us for further information.

All information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but its accuracy is not guaranteed. There is no representation or warranty as to the current accuracy, reliability or completeness of, nor liability for, decisions based on such information and it should not be relied on as such.

The views expressed in this commentary are subject to change based on market and other conditions. These documents may contain certain statements that may be deemed forward‐looking statements. Please note that any such statements are not guarantees of any future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected. Any projections, market outlooks, or estimates are based upon certain assumptions and should not be construed as indicative of actual events that will occur.

Past performance is no guarantee of future returns.

Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk. Therefore, it should not be assumed that future performance of any specific investment or investment strategy will be profitable