Do not "buy the dip". It will go down more, like in 2008.
The only problem is that I've only got $5k to invest, especially if I'm maintaining a healthy rainy day fund. And I'm not throwing all $5k into a single stock. That's why I'm not on a gold plated yacht.
The truth is you could be a financial genius but if you grew up in a middle class family and have basically zero inherited wealth, you're not going to have the money to invest.
It's far more likely that those financial geniuses are just not worried about retirement or college tuition for their kids. Because the strongest correlating factor for getting richer is already being rich, and not being smart with money.
The real question is... why aren't all yachts now gold-plated yachts? If my father gave me $1 billion 40 years ago, I would have to be literally the dumbest idiot in the world--or the unluckiest schliemazel in the world--to have less than that now. Instead, I just got a debt-free bachelor's degree, and so I'm not rich now, but still doing okay.
I don't think I can beat wall street except when wall street doesn't know how to respond.
Do not make "all or nothing" investment choices. It's perfectly reasonable to stay the course with bi-monthly investment purchases in your 401k.
We will bottom out eventually, but you're unlikely to call the exact bottom.
Sure, I wouldn't put 100% of my cash to work right now, but I think it's sensible to come up with a list of stocks you feel are beat up, and dollar cost average buying them.
Of course this is hard to do if your portfolio is 100% invested already, and you have little cash left.
S&P crashed in 2008 and recovered in 2013.
1 year is way too short a timeline. Maybe 5-10 years is the shortest time horizon to not be worried about market timing
EDIT: what part of this comment merited the cascade of downvotes (-5 at this moment)? You can verify the first two points fairly easily, and the last line is general advice given by many financial professionals and evidenced by the first two.
Do not average down.
The infected numbers will rise precipitously as testing rolls out, and the apparent growth rate will freak people out and roil the market more.
By all means, please keep selling! Personally, I'm betting that the markets will recover pretty quickly after things actually start to improve, and I'll be surprised if this skittishness doesn't pay for the trip to Venice that I'm now planning to take in the Spring :D
It'll still be gamble, but I like these odds.
Indeed it’s clear that a bottom must exist. Being unable to infer where it may be does not negate that certainty.
Except that bottoms have more natural barriers than tops.