In the wake of November's consolidation, equity markets started falling again in the last month of 2018. Despite the announcement of trade concessions between China and the United States — with the resumption of agricultural imports and Chinese raw materials in exchange for the suspension of new US tariffs — attention seemed to focus more on Brexit negotiations and Italian debt. But there were also fears of a slowdown in the global economy given disappointing European economic indicators, poor growth numbers from China and possible budget paralysis in the United States. The Fed's rate hike, though expected, accelerated the decline in equity markets. As a result, 2018 closed on what will prove to be one of the worst Decembers since 1931 for equities. However, de-correlation between asset classes was in evidence and the bearish equity trend resulted in a flight-to-quality on government bonds. In addition, emerging bonds performed well to post positive gains over the month. In this market climate, our QuAM methodology adopted a conservative allocation strategy. With the VIX volatility index at 35, its highest since February, safe-haven assets stood out well and QuAM strategy focused exposure mainly on government bond funds. We sold most of the monetary funds to take advantage from the flight-to-quality into government bonds, which took advantage of the ECB's accommodating tone and the sharp fall on equity markets. The portfolio's small equity compartment distinguished itself with broad geographical and sector diversification, which enabled the portfolio to limit the negative impact of the market decline.