Dow falls 1,191 points -- the most in history

Down more than 10%
It is scary out there and everyone is expecting the worse…schools and factories closed, no one going work…no goods from China…no one even shopping in China. There are no guarantees but I see some green shoots…

Starbucks is opening 85% of their stores in China

A couple of firms have vaccines in the pipeline

Very few cases in US…I am not a doctor but there would be widespread visits and illnesses reported from hospitals.

My biggest concern is there are very few test kits and I hope there is a “moon shot” approach to producing and distributing these. US needs to spend as much as possible to get this done.

I was on public transportation and went to see fantastic Beethoven symphonies in a packed concert hall last night and thought about the virus but no one seemed to be concerned.

I would hold tight or even put money to work.

When “there is blood in the streets” and the largest fear…this is the time to invest.
 

The drop in stock prices is just one effect of the coronavirus. Shortages of parts and materials can cause a loss of production which will mean a loss of sales.

Most of my investments are in dividend stocks or mutual funds. If companies lose sales they may have to reduce or eliminate dividends. That will certainly affect my income no matter the price of the stock.
 
Dow falls 1,191 points -- the most in history

The thing I do is make sure we have enough money in cash or CD's to live on for two years, witch we have. Our stocks pay good dividends which will keep coming ... some might reduce their payouts but not many and not that much.
 

we can go a long long time just rebalancing from bonds if need be .... i just rebalanced my long term treasury bond fund . it was up 30% over the last 1 year period so i raised cash. in fact it is up 2.50% today ...not bad for a gov't bond fund
 
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Gardenlover said:
As I mentioned in another strip around here somewhere - It's just paper until you have the gold in hand. I know some disagree, but stocks will rise again, don't freak out and sell it low.
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I didn't freak out, I bought a few shares at their 52 week low. I am one of the few who likes market crashes.

Aunt Bea said:
I remember Black Monday on that day, October 19, 1987, I learned the value of having cash on hand.
I had pulled out the money to buy a house a week before the dip.
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That was excellent timing, Bea!

treeguy64 said:
If you have enough cash to comfortably do so, be like a kid in the candy store, and buy up all of the bargains, at the bottom, brought about by foolish people panic selling. Never went wrong doing so.
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I LOVE that kind of candy! Yummy!
 
Catlady said:
Lady, one of my biggest regrets in life was selling 50 shares of Amazon at $50 early this century (forget the year). I had bought at $16 and thought I was being a genius making all that profit. I'm still trying to kick my ass, but I can't reach it. 😭
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😭😭
LOL about kicking your ass but can't reach it..:ROFLMAO: I wish I would have gotten a few shares way back when....Whewwww!!!!
 
Ladybj said:
😭😭
LOL about kicking your ass but can't reach it..:ROFLMAO: I wish I would have gotten a few shares way back when....Whewwww!!!!
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Well, the 52 week high was $2186, I like to buy them at 50% off or less, so I'll buy ONE share when it gets to $1100, that's all I have the money for it. Wish I had more spendable income, but beggars can't be choosers, eh? At least I'll have my toe in the door.
 
Catlady said:
Lady, one of my biggest regrets in life was selling 50 shares of Amazon at $50 early this century (forget the year). I had bought at $16 and thought I was being a genius making all that profit. I'm still trying to kick my ass, but I can't reach it. 😭
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But at least you made money. I sold Netflix years ago a week after it soared 150+ points in one day. Should have held but that big of a one day gain was good enough for this boy. NOTE: six trillion dollars lost this week
 
fmdog44 said:
But at least you made money. I sold Netflix years ago a week after it soared 150+ points in one day. Should have held but that big of a one day gain was good enough for this boy. NOTE: six trillion dollars lost this week
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Yeah, but I sold 50 @ 50- = $2500, today at 50 @1884 would have been $94,200! Grrrr!

Some poster at Yahoo said he paid $70k for Netflix and sold at $140k, and if he had held on to it would have been $3.4 million. I guess I shouldn't complain about my nickel and dimes, eh?
 
Catlady said:
I didn't freak out, I bought a few shares at their 52 week low. I am one of the few who likes market crashes.


That was excellent timing, Bea!


I LOVE that kind of candy! Yummy!
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for most investors who have modest portfolio's to large ones , the little bit of buying at these lower prices we do is like peeing in the ocean compared to what now has taken a hit down and any further growth needs to make up the loss before you can move forard .

so all things being able i don't want a downturn even though they are inevitable . so i certainly don't wish for them .. it is like paying 4 dollars additional in tax to get back 1 dolllar
 
So far I'm only down about 12% which means I really haven't lost money (as far as cost basis goes). I used the drops to buy some stuff three days in a row. I wish I'd waited until Friday to place my buy order but as we know....can't time the market. As expected, the utility funds held up better than my other investments.
 
OneEyedDiva said:
So far I'm only down about 12% which means I really haven't lost money (as far as cost basis goes). I used the drops to buy some stuff three days in a row. I wish I'd waited until Friday to place my buy order but as we know....can't time the market. As expected, the utility funds held up better than my other investments.
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overall i am down down 3% since my high as i was running an all weather portfolio ... not bad , but a lot in dollars .

You also have to consider the dollars invested ...I am looking at being down 100k as of yesterday from the high yet I am only 25% equities and while I am down very little percentage wise , in dollars I am down more than many others with 2 to 3x the equities I do.

Dollars are dollars and what those dollars represent is the same no matter what your balance is .... no matter how big the portfolio that down represents about 5 years of 401k contributions at catch up so the point is lower allocations to equities can be just as painful to see as higher equity allocations would be on smaller portfolios...


Our brains tend to work in dollars not percentages when we associate a loss
 
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mathjak107 said:
overall i am down down 3% since i was running an all weather portfolio ... not bad , but a lot in dollars .

You also have to consider the dollars invested ...I am looking at being down 100k as of yesterday from the high yet I am only 25% equities and while I am down very little percentage wise , in dollars I am down more than many others with 2 to 3x the equities I do.

Dollars are dollars and what those dollars represent is the same no matter what your balance is .... no matter how big the portfolio that down represents about 5 years of 401k contributions at catch up so the point is lower allocations to equities can be just as painful to see as higher equity allocations would be on smaller portfolios...


Our brains tend to work in dollars not percentages when we associate a loss
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What I like about Schwab MJ is that they show you your gains and losses in both dollars and percentages. Not all my investments are there though. I calculate the overall percentages of gains or losses annually on my Mutual Fund Quarterly Values spreadsheets. Last year's gain was 22.8%. So are you saying you only have 25% invested in stocks and mutual funds?
 
OneEyedDiva said:
What I like about Schwab MJ is that they show you your gains and losses in both dollars and percentages. Not all my investments are there though. I calculate the overall percentages of gains or losses annually on my Mutual Fund Quarterly Values spreadsheets. Last year's gain was 22.8%. So are you saying you only have 25% invested in stocks and mutual funds?
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most brokerages give both .
 
OneEyedDiva said:
What I like about Schwab MJ is that they show you your gains and losses in both dollars and percentages. Not all my investments are there though. I calculate the overall percentages of gains or losses annually on my Mutual Fund Quarterly Values spreadsheets. Last year's gain was 22.8%. So are you saying you only have 25% invested in stocks and mutual funds?
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i have been reducing the equities over the last year after 11 years of a bull . however the supporting assets i bought are as volatile as stocks , TLT my long treasury bond fund is up 30% over the 1 year ... my gold is up over 20% over the one year .

so while i reduced equities i bought more of these other assets which soared instead .

now i will start to take profits in gold and long term treasuries and go back to my typical growth and income model pocketing multiple 6 figures in profit based on what i can buy it back for now.

typically i run 40-50% equities but i was not comfortable with a non defensive portfolio with china and the chaos in washington so i started to shift to an all weather model pre the drop .

the model was 25% in a total market fund

25% short term treasuries

25% long term treasuries TLT

25% GOLD SGOL OR GLD

plus i use a 25% equity model that is geared for income and is 67% less volatile then the s&p 500.

the two stood up very well and held the drop so far to a mere 3%
 
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mathjak107 said:
i have been reducing the equities over the last year after 11 years of a bull . however the supporting assets i bought are as volatile as stocks , TLT my long treasury bond fund is up 30% over the 1 year ... my gold is up over 20% over the one year .

so while i reduced equities i bought more of these other assets which soared instead .

now i will start to take profits in gold and long term treasuries and go back to my typical growth and income model pocketing multiple 6 figures in profit based on what i can buy it back for now.

typically i run 40-50% equities but i was not comfortable with a non defensive portfolio with china and the chaos in washington so i started to shift to an all weather model pre the drop .

the model was 25% in a total market fund

25% short term treasuries

25% long term treasuries TLT

25% GOLD SGOL OR GLD

plus i use a 25% equity model that is geared for income and is 67% less volatile then the s&p 500.

the two stood up very well and held the drop so far to a mere 3%
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3% is great. Have you been adding to your gold over time or did you buy all at once? In what form is your gold and how/where do you sell? I'm asking because twice I considered buying gold then changed my mind.
 
OneEyedDiva said:
3% is great. Have you been adding to your gold over time or did you buy all at once? In what form is your gold and how/where do you sell? I'm asking because twice I considered buying gold then changed my mind.
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when i make changes i do it all at once .. for gold i use the etf sgol ... i used to use gld but i don't like hsbc bank who baby sits 40 billion in gold for them. sgol is stored in swiss banks . both are etf's traded like stocks
 
Pecos said:
Dear Stock Market,

ENOUGH ALREADY

You made your point!

Pecos
A Loyal Participant for Many Decades
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No, we need to hit 20% down for a while, to officially make it a bear market, so we can start all over and soar again. Most people, me included, are nervous about this OLD bull at 11 years. We NEED a new bull!
 

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