Anyone else having panic attacks about the market?

[newyorklady]

I am seriously freaked out, please tell me I am just being crazy.

 

[wabmester]

What were your expectations of the stock market?

If your expectations were continued high returns and low volatility, then yes, you are crazy.

 

[73ss454]

Yeah, Brewer gave me some good advice. Don't look!

 

[chinaco]

Nope! It just confirms the wisdom of using diversification.

 

[d]

ditto brewer's advice. (though i can't take my eyes off it ... ) if it really will make you feel better: yes, you're crazy.

 

[Alan]

I look more often than I should but the daily swings don't bother me. 3 consecutive years of losses bothered me a few years ago but I kept on re-balancing buying more stocks each 6 months (my 30% allocation in bonds were doing very well).

 

[Zathras]

I am getting more and more excited! Looking forward to the buying oportunities. Wishing I had more money to take advantage of this little correction.

Considering that I KNOW that sometime in the next 50 years I will live through a major recession, this is either minor, or the begining of said recession

 

[Sandy]

Not panic attacks exactly, but...

the combination of wonderful spring weather, a very boring stretch at w*rk, and watching the pot decrease, however expected and understood, is disheartening. This stretch (so far) isn't long or deep enough to change my 5 year plan for FIRE, but when I'd rather be doing anything but sitting in meetings all day, this market performance doesn't help my morale.

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

I am seriously freaked out, please tell me I am just being crazy.

I'm tempted to ask about your asset allocation. I am not retired so can't speak with real experience, but at least theoretically, I'd be living off of cash for 5 year gulps. Probably wouldn't worry much and might do some light bottom-feeding if today repeats itself for a while.

As implied by other posters, all this is expected, part of the routine, and will even get much, much worse at times. All that's built into the usual 4% plans.

Might be a good time to review your FIRE strategy if you are having a lot of grief.

 

[Dawg52]

Actually it doesn't bother me. It may work out to be lucky timing as I am about to sell my company stock and take it to the house. I plan to dump it into Vanguard's Wellesley mutual fund. Hopefully it will be good timing.

 

[danm]

No, not if you had planned for a major market downturn.

 

[Alex]

I am still in the accumulation phase so these things do not worry me. If I were already retired I still don't think it would bother me. I guess I am just an optimist?

 

[W2R]

Not panic attacks exactly, but...

the combination of wonderful spring weather, a very boring stretch at w*rk, and watching the pot decrease, however expected and understood, is disheartening. This stretch (so far) isn't long or deep enough to change my 5 year plan for FIRE, but when I'd rather be doing anything but sitting in meetings all day, this market performance doesn't help my morale.

This is pretty much how I've been feeling, too. Disheartened, but everything's OK thus far. Every now and then I think about the fact that this could be the beginning of a big slide downwards. I'm retiring in 3 years, and my luck thus far has not be superb - - so I am half expecting a big downturn sometime in the next 5 years. But the last thing I'd want to do is act on that pessimistic thought. I'm lousy at market timing (proved that to myself a couple of times).

So, I'll hang on. Probably things will improve, and then I'll just sigh with relief and figure that I managed to hang on through another one. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.

I am still working, and if necessary I suppose I could keep doing so indefinitely. I really don't see that happening, though.

 

[citril]

Anyone who has concerns about the small amount of volatility we have had the last couple of weeks needs to read about Black Monday from 1987 and internalize what it would mean to them and their portfolio if when it happens again. Then review your asset allocation and make sure you can sleep at night.

Black Monday is the name given to Monday, October 19, 1987, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) fell dramatically, and on which similar enormous drops occurred across the world. By the end of October, stock markets in Hong Kong had fallen 45.8%, Australia 41.8%, the United Kingdom 26.4%, the United States 22.68%, and Canada 22.5%.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Monday_(1987)

 

[lswswein]

if things go down some more we might finally find some cheap asset classes to rebalance into... Volatility is part of the big picture, and it comes both ways. I am a long way from retiring so every down turn means I am buying stuff on sale...

-h

 

[clifp]

No reason to be worried. I just finished reading Jermey Speigels Stock for the long-run. A despite the warning that future stock returns are likely to be lower than past a 7% real return is well more than I need. As long as you have a few years of living expense is a safe investment no need to worry.

I look at this market pullback positively for two reasons first and most importantly it is a buying opportunity. Picked up a Canadian pharmautical company, BVF and reasonable safe REIT, both yielding north of 7%. Second, since I write covered calls I like to see a more volatile market. The last couple of years have seen market volatility drop to very low levels. If you think that the 2% decline we saw today is scary, be glad you didn't live in 1932 when 5%+ drops (equivalent to 600 point drops now) were practically monthly occurances as well as a number of 5%+ gains.

 

[dex]

Japan down 400+ points tonight - should make for an interesting day in the USA markets.

Average into the markets and you shouldn't be worried.

A great buying opportunity is coming.

Why do we worry when the stock market has a sale?

 

[wabmester]

Why do we worry when the stock market has a sale?

Because we can never tell when the sale is over? Or is because we own the stuff that is on sale?

 

[newyorklady]

global meltdown. i am screwed.

 

[REWahoo]

global meltdown. i am screwed.

Yes you are...if you don't take a long-term view of equity markets. Unless you are willing to ride the roller coaster both up and down, you shouldn't be on it.

 

[haha]

Anyone who has concerns about the small amount of volatility we have had the last couple of weeks needs to read about Black Monday from 1987 and internalize what it would mean to them and their portfolio if when it happens again. Then review your asset allocation and make sure you can sleep at night.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Monday_(1987)

This is not quite like asking a young recruit to imagine combat; but then most of these guys are tougher than we are. When/if a person experiences a large drawdown, with no job, no pension and no more cash inflows expected, then that person will know where he stands vis a vis market risk.

Ha

 

[Gearhead Jim]

Anyone who has concerns about the small amount of volatility we have had the last couple of weeks needs to read about Black Monday from 1987 and internalize what it would mean to them and their portfolio if when it happens again. Then review your asset allocation and make sure you can sleep at night.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Monday_(1987)

I was a copilot flying the airline that day, young enough that the market crash didn't bother me. But my captain was much older and also facing a divorce, he kept the AM ADF radio in his ear all day long. You could say that I flew solo all day long.
At the end of the day, he pulled all of his (remaining) money out of the market, so he missed the big zoom that came later. Taught me a valuable lesson about taking the long term view.

 

[danm]

When stocks go up, you make money. When they go down, it's a buying opportunity. You can't lose!

 

[haha]

Because we can never tell when the sale is over? Or is because we own the stuff that is on sale?

Stop it Mr. Wab; this is incorrect thought.

Ha

 

[Nords]

global meltdown. i am screwed.

A couple weeks ago our ER portfolio (>90% equities) was down 4.4% from its all-time high.

Today, even after a 240-point drop in the DOW, it's only down 2.9%.

If the DOW drops below 12,000 maybe we'll be ready to trade in some cap gains on Tweedy, Browne for more of the DOW dividend ETF. But maybe there'll be more opportunities to do that this summer. And you know that the worse things get, the better a bargain Berkshire Hathaway will become.

FirstFed Financial broke $69/share a couple weeks ago and I managed to short just over $68. It closed at $52.04 today but I bet things will get even worse better this week. There are a few thousand other overvalued equities out there (Abercrombie & Fitch!) so maybe this is a good time to go short...