Monday, February 24, 2020

Being Smart with $$ - Is it Too Late to Trade Based on Today's Headlines?


The stock market caught the coronavirus today and fell hard. Over the past several weeks, investors have been unsure of the impact of the virus and balanced it against good corporate earnings and other news and market movements have been restrained but today the markets fell based on headlines of worsening contagion.  If you wish you traded out of some stocks before today’s coronavirus news, remember that the markets always adjust to news stories before you can trade on them.  Therefore, if you do trade, you are already too late based on what we know right now.  Any decision to make a bet on a stock or an entire market is a claim that you know better than the rest of the world because markets trade at an equilibrium price where the optimism of buyers is offset by the pessimism of sellers.  Every year, many brand name investment firms claim to know better than the collective of the world’s investors and guess wrong.  Nobody likes to see their investment account balance fall but investors like Warren Buffet see it as buying opportunity and if you are invested for a distant goal, then short-term drops in the market should not concern you.  You should keep the faith that while global corporate earnings may be impacted by something like coronavirus, in the long run, all those profits will lead to higher stock prices over the decades before you reach your goal.  (Past performance may not be an indicator of what to expect in the future and your individual circumstances should be considered in any investment choice.)
Larry Pike, CFA
Client Priority Financial Advisors LLC
www.clientpriority.com
Blog:
clientpriority.blogspot.com

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