Managing Stomach Churning Market Drops
Ugh. This year has been psychologically brutal for buy and hold investors. Between February’s sell off and this week’s repeat on US/China trade war concerns-there has been a lot of volatility in the market. The S&P 500 is currently down below November 2017 levels wiping out all January 2018 gains. Don’t panic-remember we are investing for the long term. S&P 500 March 2018 YTD At least, for now, we are still positive versus this time last year. S&P 500 1 Year Performance March 2018 None of this short term volatility matters-even if the US heads into a recession (after all this is the second longest bull market in history-it’s time) in the next few years. These market dips are a buying opportunity. Basically the market periodically goes sale. If the S&P is at 5000 in seven years-would you rather have bought at 2500 or 2800? Remember-we are investing for the long term, 20-30 years. The market goes up over long periods of time