Ask HN: Is this a good time to buy stock?
I've long been pondering and putting off buying stock. With the fears of Coronavirus, it seems the stock market is down. Is this a good time to buy stock?
Any favorites you'd recommend?
Any favorites you'd recommend?
Timing the market is a futile game. Take the Buffet approach... Buy because you like the fundamentals and hold forever.
And it's a better time then two weeks ago, because basically everything is cheaper.
I will say though, if you are buying now, be prepared to take losses initially. This could keep going down.
Seriously, the market is now back to where it was six months ago. Consider what that says about people trying you to tell you to "buy the dip now that things are cheap". You've got two choices... Buy index funds slowly and consistently regardless of the news, or learn to pick decently priced individual stocks based on your own fundamental analysis.
Ignore anyone who tells you to use technical analysis, they're an idiot, and if you venture into reddit/wallstreetbets, you are screwed.
Good luck.
I want to be wrong about this though. Maybe I'm seeing it from the wrong light. So if someone wants to tell me otherwise, feel free.
The question is if that's even an opportunity. The market may very well fall or be flat for the next decade. Having money does not equate to automatic making of more money - there's plenty of moneyed families who lost it all and went on to became cab drivers etc.
> So what's the future look like? More of the same.
The future looks relatively bright. In general, gigantic, unprecedented numbers of people are lifted out of poverty every year now. The world is already an amazing place compared to where it was just a hundred years ago, and it looks like the trend will continue. There are threats like climate change, resource depletion etc. but it's unclear if they can wipe out all of the gains we've already made.
My take is this: at the beginning of the Trump administration, P/E ratios were at the high range of "normal". There is another factor of four you could get in the "bubble" range but that is a special phenomenon that happens once a generation or so.
Today you always have people asking "is this a bubble?" because we remember the 1990s, but maybe by 2040 or so it something people might be ready to believe.
Under the Trump admin I think the stock market has gone up without visible means of support, but it has not gotten into the extreme bubble territory that we saw in the 1920s, 1960s and 1990s.
Thus now is certainly a chance to get in, but I can't be too excited about the market now.
I suggest you get a good ETF like QQQ.