The market typically underperforms the first 2 years of a term because as much policy as possible gets pushed through. The pre election year or 3rd year in a term has typically been the best performing year as presidents and there parties stimulate the economy and prime the pump to hold onto power. Historically since 1953 the average Dow Jones performance during the 1st year of a term ( post election year) has been 2.7% per year as a comparison the average annual return of all years since 1953 has been 8.4% return per year.