While no one  knows the outcome of the elections, nor the direction the stock market is going to take in the next year, you can be sure the two will be correlated. Over the past 100 years there has been definitive trends between what kind of year the markets are having, and current political events.

One interesting item to note is the way the markets respond to presidential terms. Stocks tend to fair pretty bad in the first year or two of a presidents term.

This is in contrast to extremely good years during president’s second two years. The reason for this is simple. Sometimes hard choices must be made that may make the economy weaker in the short term, but stronger in the long run.

If a president knows that they must make this choice, they will typically make it in the first two years of their presidency so that they can tout strong economic improvement in their second two years when they are running for office.

This year could be considered the perfect storm based on those statistics. Not only is it going to be the first term of whichever presidential candidate wins the race, but both candidates tend to poll negatively with Wall Street (Hillary Clinton polling much better, but still negatively).

In addition, the U.S. stock market is nearing the end of one of the longest bull runs in its history. It has been nearly seven years since the last bear market, a long run by any means. Just check out the chart below to get an idea of what the markets have done in the past 20-30 years.

The last piece of the puzzle is interest rates. Interest rates have remained artificially low for the past decade as the U.S. seeks to fix continued problems from the financial crisis. That is coming to an end.

Late last year Janet Yellen, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, announced a small increase from the 0% interest rates borrowers have been enjoying for the last few years. It is estimated that another increase will come in January, and more potential increases as the fed feels better about the state of the economy.

Interest rates directly affect stock prices, and the markets have already shown that they are prepared to drop when the announcement comes.

The market has spent the last year in frothy territory with very little gains to show and quite a bit of volatility. Most investors are jittery and are simply waiting for everything to come together.

That moment could be the presidential election. Even if Hillary wins, as most expect her to, the election could be the tipping point. As investors start to pull out in fear, just as in every bear market, fear will lead to more fear, and a bear market will be in full swing.

The great thing is that it does not matter if it is a bull or bear market to most long term investors. They can make money in any market. In fact, the volatility that comes with bear markets is often seen as a great way to make money by many investors.

Sure, it will require more research and careful watching of your portfolio, but the potential is there to get some great deals when other investors are getting scared.

Just choose a broker and you will be all set to start making money in the pending bear market.