PDEMDHC said:

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Just had a really hard talk with my own dad that didn't end well for either of us. He's 100% long in stocks this entire time, retired, and doesn't know how's he doing other than losing more money than I could imagine in the last three weeks. I teared up a little.

He's not wealthy by any stretch but does well enough. We've been talking about the market everyday last three weeks and bouncing ideas off each other and advice on what to do.

He's such an intelligent and good man, but I cannot believe what he told me.

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That's tough, hang in. I can't imagine being near retirement or retired. I'm learning some costly lessons about need to have cash sidelined.

Unfortunately we have the perfect unforseen storm now of:

1) Med pros trying to scare people into being safe and not spreading further.

2) Dems and media panicking investors into a recession to benefit their chances at power.

3) Oil demand and supply double whammy

Boat Shoes said:

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Out of curiosity, did anyone not near retirement age actually pull their money out of the market during this pullback in their retirement accounts? I personally never touch mine as I have 20+ years to go but looking at the balance, man I wish I would have!

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I am in retirement and invested in stocks. I sold about 50% of my holdings in Feb near the high and bought short ETFs to hedge and sold covered calls on other positions. My weekly and daily charts said get out. I sold those ETFs a little to early when support levels were hit. I figured we were in a correction and would be down 10-20%. I have accounts that are fully taxable so I look at tax ramifications when selling. That is why I did not sell everything. Looking backwards that was a wrong move. No one could have predicted the oil price crush and the virus coming together and this fast of a downfall. History making like 1987. There will be a chance to sell in the future at better prices if you think we are in a long term bear. We will have a rally and it will be a big rally. Bull rallies in a bear market are violet on the upside and quick. When it moves in a hyperbolic fashion to the downside it is hard to sell. This market is historically oversold, but can get more oversold, but usually when a downdraft likes this has happened in the past there are big moves up after wards. When that comes who knows. It could start tomorrow. We are going to have a 10% day in the future and who knows what will trigger it. But when you are down 30% from the highs it will take a 45% move to get back to the highs.

Panic and fear is in the streets and it is dumb to sell when irrational decisions are being made by many at this time. Personally I am not buying now either. I will wait for a rally and a retest or a further down move to new lows over the next few months. I may sell some stocks during a rally to raise more cash. There has been some ridiculous down moves in many stocks. There is going to be a once in a lifetime (for me anyway) buying opportunity at sometime. The last one was in 1987 for me and I did not have enough free cash in those days to do much. I held my stock positions back then and it worked out well for another 13 years.

I doubt this is going to be a V recovery like 2018-2019 and it will take several months to bottom out.

I was planning to start pulling stuff out this month in prep for the election season, but by the time I was ready, we had already dropped 10-15% and so I left it in and at this point I'm pot committed and not selling out now

I've basically put my free cash back in now for stocks I don't mind holding long, so I'm probably bowing out of this thread for a while as I don't expect a lot of free cash to play with things for a while

Y'all keep kicking ass!

I'm 63 years old. I can't really tell you why, but in late January I had a strange premonition that this corona virus was going to be a big deal. I went 80% cash in my IRA, and I fully cashed out my wife's two IRA's. As the market continued to rise, I made a couple of short term trades. One I killed it, the other I lost money. About 20 days ago I went full cash.

Today has been a huge wake up call for me. I feel badly for those who are getting pummeled. Heck, for all I know my cash may get devalued and I'll be sunk.

These are times none of us have experienced.

Odds are futures swing green hard unless something crazier, like Trump contracts virus.

Disney only down $2 on news. It was priced in

Fitch said:

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One of the EVP's in our shop close to retirement pulled out and went all cash Wednesday last week. I'm in early 30's and haven't sold anything in my portfolio. Last couple days have been a painful learning experience.

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You are early 30's. Your learning experience will be that it was smart not to sell and stay in this.

ESPN only has the women's tourney. Probably a revenue bump for them now that it's cancelled.

MavsAg said:

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ESPN only has the women's tourney. Probably a revenue bump for them now that it's cancelled.

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Why would you say that?

Prognightmare said:

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MavsAg said:

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ESPN only has the women's tourney. Probably a revenue bump for them now that it's cancelled.

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Why would you say that?

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Jesus that is hard to watch.

chrisfield said:

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You think this is the bottom or just talking about tomorrow?

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Impossible for anyone to know, but this is the sharpest drop in 33 years. So odds are big money is buying soon (and already has). I saw several huge orders today on multiple tickers...and those buying this dip will be rewarded big in time.

PneumAg said:

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YouBet said:

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Fitch said:

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One of the EVP's in our shop close to retirement pulled out and went all cash Wednesday last week. I'm in early 30's and haven't sold anything in my portfolio. Last couple days have been a painful learning experience.

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You are early 30's. Your learning experience will be that it was smart not to sell and stay in this.

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I dunno dude. I'm 32. Been in the market since I was 24 and have obviously never seen anything like this. Between 401k, Roth IRA, and TD Ameritrade account, I've lost over $200,000 in the last 7 days. Fortunately I keep quite a bit in cash and also a decent amount in real estate, plus I hit some good shorts yesterday, today, and hopefully tomorrow.....but damn. I don't see how you can say it's good for me to be in right now having only really significantly gotten in during the last 8 years.

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Are your losses greater than your all time gains? We were due for a 20% correction regardless of virus, but timing the market is very hard. We're at 1/1 2019 numbers. In 8 years, you've had your first 15 month set back. You kept cash and shorted well it sounded like. The rebound will happen eventually, so just keep hedging.

Time in the market beats timing the market. Keep weathering the storm, and 8 years from now you can laugh at 200,000 loss.