Hey sorry if this is a bit of an outlier for this forum but I'm wondering if any users have predictions about the stock market. After the recent Coronavirus correction, this week opened (so far) with Hang Seng up about 1.1%, Dax got a high of 1.6% and FTSE got a high of about 2.5%. With US post market having already seen a rise, I'm guessing we might see the US markets up as much as 3% today, after that though I'm sure we're looking at a volatile week. What do you guys think?
Well, my initial guess seems to have been correct. It's funny though how volatile the markets are. This week opened up on Monday and has gone down so far on Tuesday, as I had guessed it would. The exact details though were pretty confusing. Early Tuesday it was up and I thought I was wrong. Then the Fed did an "emergency rate cut" which should help the markets and after that, I thought to myself, now I'm sure that I'm wrong. But like a half hour after the Fed announced their rate cut, the markets tanked. So basically the opposite of what anyone would have expected. Weird! Due to supply line disruptions in China, volatility is forecasted to continue for quite awhile. The lack of a solid recovery after the rate cut seemingly guarantees this. Wee!
I know almost nothing about the stock market, but It does seem to be diving. Younger people keep telling me how much they're losing in retirement accounts. I do hope things turn around and we don't do the same nose dive we did in 1929.
If you're working and contributing to a retirement account invested in stocks you should be jumping for joy. Think of it as buying stocks at a huge discount. That's how I was able to retire early and you can too.
Stocks only lose money when you sell them at a loss. What I think you're speaking of are unrealized losses, meaning, the stock shares are losing value, not actual money. Example......I buy a round lot (100) of shares for $50 a share. That's $5,000. Tomorrow, if the price dips to $48, now they're worth $4,800. You'd only lose actual money if you sold those shares at $48 a share, which would then be a realized loss. If they rose in value to $52 a share, you'd have an unrealized gain. If you actually sold them at $52, then you'd have a realized gain.
Thanks for the reply. I was actually referring to the idea of ''jumping for joy" because of a drop in stocks. I understand the idea of buying low in the hopes that it will rise up again, but if I don't have the money to buy low, my jumpiness would be for a different reason.
Pretty sure this tread is old but yours is a good question. If your in a mutual fund or employer plan your choices are pretty limited and your hope is you have a good fund manager. If you have already taken the hit the best advice would be to sit tight. When it comes time, on some employer plans. your allowed to reallocate your money between different options. This crash was so fast, and the pandemic on top of it, few people were able to get out in time. That said, the market has come back about 30% off it's lows. and is about 20% off it's high. Besides the pandemic what is worrying the markets is the shutdowns and the collapse of the oil markets. I have a 401 and it was mainly in dividend stocks and tech. It took a major hit but I am just riding it out and it is coming back Mainly what it did was wipe out the gains I made last year and the first part of this year. My principal, that I put in, has recovered. I see you said that you don't have a bunch of money to invest. I would go and talk to someone like TD Ameritrade or on line discount brokers and find out what the minimum is to open an account. I use TD and there is no-charge for trades. I am able to buy one share if I desire. It is never too late to get started and there are lots of information on the internet what some of the terms mean. I own stocks that I paid 1.50 a share for (a uranium mine) to 600.00 a share. If I was just starting out I would buy what they call the broader market index ( DIA, SPY ) and cost average my shares.( Some months high and some low). They also have blended funds (Stocks and Bonds) It's a long term game and if you need your money now to live on I wouldn't jump in until better times. The average return on stocks over the years is about 9%. Compounded that will build you a nice nest egg and help when the time comes. My strategy has been to buy companies on the dips and hold them until after the recovery. Examples are Disney. Parks won't open this year and I'm sure it will get slammed when they report their quarter. Under 100.00 a share is a steal and I think it will fall into the 80's or 90's. When they finally do get back up to speed that stock will more than double. If you believe in the coming of 5G and the IoT ( Internet of Things) then I would start picking up shares in QQQ . It's a ETF of tech stocks like Tesla, Intel, Microsoft etc. That little 1.50 stock I bought is UUUU if you want to check it out.
Thanks for the well-written reply. I'm not actually planning to invest mostly because I'm retired. My questions were out of curiosity and a bit of concern for my sons and their retirement accounts. They were talking about how much they'd lost, and I wanted to understand how much of a problem all this would be. But I do like your advice about sitting tight for now. That seems like the wisest choice.
