Down Day in the Market !

[FIREd_2015]

The latest data on margin debt (Dec. 2017) is $642.8 billion - all time high. I'm guessing some of those people may be rethinking their margin positions. At some point in time there will be margin calls and when that happens it won't be pretty.

 

[audreyh1]

People here know that there's no reason to panic. So far, the Dow is only knocked back, oh, to early Dec 2017. That's 2 months of gain reclaimed by the market.

Even if the market is knocked back 1 year, we are a cool group and would not panic, right? What's one year while we talk long term of 30 years of retirement, more for the young ERs?

That would mean the Dow at 20,000 instead of 24,346 at close today.

Gosh, if it knocked us back a year I’d get to rebalance!

 

[NW-Bound]

Eh, I thought you would do it only on the first trading day after the New Year.

 

[Pilot2013]

Some people are happy and feeding the paranoid....

 

[Just_Steve]

Outside of that, it looks like I am going to dollar cost avg. in some monies that were sitting in a stable value fund.

I

Exactly what I have been thinking.

 

[stephenson]

Vanguard for part of portfolio - buying today - definitely not selling!!!

I am jacked about not being to buy on Vanguard due to their site issues - happens again and I'm gonna move!!

 

[NW-Bound]

If most of the people who clamored to log to Vanguard had intention of cashing out, it would be good that they were locked out. Else, Vanguard MF managers would have to sell more for redemption.

 

[Clone]

Back to wondering if it will break 25000 any time soon.

Hopefully it will be back to 26000 by the 1st of February. Not sure about which year though.

I am looking for a crystal ball on Amazon. Any recommendations?

 

[stephenson]

NW bound - Vanguard does not get to make that decision

 

[W2R]

Hopefully it will be back to 26000 by the 1st of February. Not sure about which year though.

I am looking for a crystal ball on Amazon. Any recommendations?

I got mine at a dusty old antique store in Ponchatoula, Louisiana, several years ago. IIRC it cost $6. Here's a photo I took of it:

Right now it is on the mantle over my fireplace here in the main living area of my home, about 10 feet from where I am sitting.

 

[Lcountz]

I am SO MAD!!!


I jumped out of a window at about 3:30, and on the way down, I realized I live in a ranch house, and now I have a broken window pane to replace and a sore behind!!!

So the market cost me TWICE today!!!!

 

[audreyh1]

Eh, I thought you would do it only on the first trading day after the New Year.

I do have triggers. They are quite wide, but that would probably blow them.

 

[MRG]

Vanguard for part of portfolio - buying today - definitely not selling!!!

I am jacked about not being to buy on Vanguard sue to their site issues - happens again and I gonna move!!

You should call them and tell them what issues you experienced! They might not know you were impacted. How would they fix something that nobody complained about? Depending on what competent messed up they might not have seen your request! Maybe they need to contact one of their network providers external to their operations. I'll guarantee nobody here can help.

I'm asking again what Vangaurd system you could not get to. The older mutual fund system they are migrating people from or their new brokerage platform?

It makes a big difference!

 

[gcgang]

THE LARGEST POINT DECLINE IN HISTORY!!! (Reverse?) Wheeeeee...

10 more days like this and the market might be undervalued. Lol.

 

[joeea]

This is a lot more exciting than the Superbowl yesterday which I did not watch. In fact, I have never watched any ball game in my life.

How could you know if you never watched a game?

 

[Bestwifeever]

Up 3.5 percent in our big Vanguard stash vs a year ago; we’ve added nothing to our 45/55 holdings and we take all distributions. Still a nervous Nellie here but that is a little reassuring to us.

 

[NW-Bound]

NW bound - Vanguard does not get to make that decision

The decision to sell to meet redemption? My point is that they don't. They have to sell to get cash at the end of the trading day if their shareholders want out.

I don't know if VG shareholders have a stronger stomach than shareholders of other MFs, but in the past market rout I read about MF managers lamenting the fact that they had to sell into a dropping market for the above reason.

This is also a big reason why MF managers tend to trail the market. They have to buy in a high market and sell in a low market, because that's what their shareholders do.

At least active MF shareholders are quite bad at this. One hopes that index fund shareholders are better.

How could you know if you never watched a game?

Well, I have watched a few minutes of sport games in my life. Never more than that, as I got bored. Not just football, but all spectator sports.

 

[haha]

I am not a huge fan of Kramer,

Kramer is a helpful forum member. The TV personality you are talking about is Cramer. My son knows him and says he too is a very smart guy.

Ha

 

[Lawrence of Suburbia]

Whatever happened to 'circuit breakers'?

 

[mamadogmamacat]

Well this is fun. Have not looked at my funds at all, neither taxable or deferred, and wont since I have no plans to change anything nor any need for cash until well into the year, and perhaps not then depending on any big ticket items, like a car that i may need/want later in 2018. Did glance at my play portfolio of individual stocks. 8 of the current 11 holdings are down less than the DOW, most considerably less. So. hey I'm a winner, in terms of the longer term anyway, or at least not so much a loser.

 

[CRLLS]

I think I executed a 5 figure mutual fund buy today. I have to wait and see if it posts tonight.

It was not some planned timing thing. Just a change in funds. At least I saved 2 days worth of loss as it was in cash. I'll call it a gain (ish).

Hang on folks. And keep the faith.

 

[stephenson]

MRG - using their brokerage side ...couldn't even get to my accounts - at all.

I'm not trying to create a major issue, and, could understand it being a "state of the art of IT" if all institutions were having same problem - but, in the case, it did happen - and, while I have small data set of three institutions, Vanguard's was the one that let me down.

 

[stephenson]

That’s very common on brokerage web sites when market volume is super high. Moral of the story - don’t expect to be able to get in last minute trades, or change existing trades.

Audrey - if is was 1995, I could excuse the lack of connectivity and failure to be able to execute - BUT, it isn't - it's time for the financial institutions to work as well for us as it does for the big traders.

 

[stephenson]

Those discussing car purchases - I've ridden in a friend and his wife's Subaru Outback several times - has the base four cylinder, but with a CVT transmission that Subaru tricked into sounding and feeling like a multi speed transmission by adding shift points. Feels like a multi speed, but is a CVT.

Nice car - I might have gone with the six cylinder version for more towing ... 3500# tow capacity!!

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

Whatever happened to 'circuit breakers'?

Didn't make it to them: http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/down-day-in-the-market-90642-9.html#post2008272 First one is at 7%.

Even the fact that people are asking about them is interesting (from a psychology point of view). If today's down draft happened in Oct 2007, it would have been a down 103.35 points, and we wouldn't even remember it.