That is opposite of what you should do. You would just be locking in losses (or greatly reduced profits). As long as you are reasonably sure you can hold your stocks for a few years then just hold on to them. Or better yet, go on buying spree and get cheap stocks.
this is much riskier than just holding. stock prices are about expectations, not necessarily reality. for all we know, everything might spike back up to January 2020 prices the second there's an inflection point in the new infection rate, and you could miss your chance to buy back in.
Not in this thread it is not. Stock market threads on Hacker News are about the same level as your doctor uncle trying to explain monads to your artist sister, I'm sorry to say. Words have specific meanings, and this just serves to confuse your average Robinhood or E-trade investor.
Right. This is a "hold the line" situation. Unfortunately, not one aspect of American society suggests that we're going to have each other's backs as a break becomes more and more possible. Therefore, it may be better to assume that it's every man for himself, and grab what you can while the getting's good.
This is why you have a robust social safety net. Not because the liberals and hippies think lazy people are entitled to free stuff; because everything - everything - is built on faith that the bottom won't ruin "you," specifically.
Two reasons: leverage costs will drag the performance of the 3x to worse than 3x over time, and in big drops there's a chance that the 3x ETF may actually implode like the XIV ETN did a while back. Those work in your favor if you're short but may or may not be worth the cost of borrowing for your situation.
> in big drops there's a chance that the 3x ETF may actually implode
Huh, I didn't consider this possibility because I can't imagine the underlying index (this one's related to the S&P 500) going up enough for that to happen. But then again, I suppose those speculating in XIV didn't expect those volatility spikes either.
For me, though, I figure the downside is capped for the relatively small amount of money I put into this 3x inverse ETF: if the fund goes all the way to $0, then I've only lost the original investment. (But also, if it goes to $0, that's probably a good thing for the rest of my portfolio.)
You could take the absolute worst case scenario if you want, I guess, but every other peak in the history of world markets has come back faster than that... Besides, that's not even fair. Why are you assuming the parent is talking about holding stocks bought at the peak? The kind of people that hold their stocks for years tend to be the kind of people who don't buy at a peak. Long-termers tend to be more of the Buffett persuasion; he has said that he wouldn't care if the market completely closed for 10 years, because he buys businesses that grow in good times and bad, and he collects dividends in good times and bad. All the while the employees of the companies are spending their efforts in making his stock more valuable.
A few typically means 2. Sure you can cherry pick one stock that didn't recover from 1989, but on average the market as a whole always recovers. Yes, there are outliers with some individual stocks.
I don't think anyone should go to the market trying to "buy the dip" in this situation. If you have cash, keep it. In a market that is dropping, 0% gain (cash) is a fantastic investment.
The textbook definition of a recession may mean that prices will continue to fall until the recession ends -- in fact, as soon as prices rise it ends the recession. But by that definition, the "great recession" ended in the USA in June 2009.
I'm guessing the above poster meant something more like "period of society-wide economic hardship" by recession. By that more colloquial definition, you might say the great recession lasted through 2014. The stock price plummet, however, was largely finished for most of that period of hardship.
I have no crystal ball; I can't tell you where we are going to be. But if the above poster meant "We're past the plummet, all that's left is the slow climb back to normalcy" then their comment makes more sense.
First, there is always the possibility that I could be wrong. The markets could hover around these levels and fall no further. Second, I may not know when to buy back in. Do I back in after they have fallen 10%? How about 20%? Should I wait till 25%? What if it goes down another 3% and then starts to head backup.. and then back down again above these levels before falling another 30%?
What you are suggesting is market timing. I am not very good at it, and I don't think most people are. You not only have to know when to sell, but you have to know when to buy back in. You have to get it right twice.
> Do I back in after they have fallen 10%? How about 20%? Should I wait till 25%?
You should not try to time the market. And hopefully you don't really mean "buy back in" (meaning your panicked and sold, you should just be adding/averaging down). Just look for general buying opportunities and don't kick yourself if the market falls a bit further before it rebounds.
Perhaps. A 30% spy drop is already in predicting recession territory (https://www.investopedia.com/a-history-of-bear-markets-45826...). Even if I was 100% confident there would be a recession, it's still not clear the markets are not undervalued at this point.
The whole debate is about being too married to stocks and ignoring the wide wide universe of markets and asset classes.
To anyone else, recognize that the citizenry is not limited to being passively investing in stocks, yet many of them are when they shouldn't be.
People in all the other markets say "buy the dip" arbitrarily too, and many of those markets are often inversely correlated to the stock market. So just repeating what your favorite investment guru once said does not give you any more insight than the next person.
2008 was a liquidity crisis and credit crunch so everything got margin called across asset classes, what’s great about 2020 is that hasn’t happened, yet. Great meaning the fireworks have yet to go off.
Regardless of whether it happened or not, my point is still true. I made a chart for you with domestic stocks, emerging market stocks, gold, bonds, Bitcoin, treasuries and real estate: https://ibb.co/1LnG5Dv.
