The stock market has been an absolute roller coaster over the last few months.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen more than 30% from all-time-highs, and we haven't even reached the bottom yet.
Is it time to sell?
No. And here's why.
Category
COVID-19 Stock Market Crash
5 Stocks to Avoid During the Coronavirus Recession
It's clear the economic impact of the coronavirus crisis is creating challenges for most companies.
But for those companies that were struggling before the virus struck, life will be exponentially more difficult.
In particular, companies that were carrying a lot of debt and that were under scrutiny from the credit rating agencies will face a tougher road back to "normal" – if they can even get there.
Stay away from these five stocks right now...
What Today's Record Jobless Claims Mean for the Stock Market
This morning, the U.S. Department of Labor reported a record number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits last week.
Following the closure of businesses across the country and the rise of "Social Distancing," nearly 3.28 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance.
The jobless claims number dwarfed the record 695,000 filers in October 1982.
Also, it blows away the 655,000 Americans who filed for jobless benefits in March 2009 – the height of the Great Recession.
Finally, the figure is more than double the consensus estimate of 1.5 million among economists and analysts.
Here's exactly what this jobless claims number means for the markets in the months ahead...
What Stock Market Capitulation Really Means
Wall Street is full of old saws.
There is one for just about every occasion, including when it's finally time to take advantage of this current bear market and buy.
And one you're going to hear over and over soon is "stock market capitulation."
One Simple Strategy to Protect Yourself from Market Losses
Bear market rallies happen; it's part of the process.
That's the message that you should hold onto through the past two days' rip higher in the market.
I remember the first set of rips and dips in 2007, when the market turned mean. The first three months saw a series of rallies and sell-offs that were both good and bad.
Good, because these fits and starts gave the nimble traders the opportunity to operate in their natural environment. Increased volatility, short-term trends, and a market that is more in tune with the technicals. It's a haven for quick and recurring profits.
Bad, because the roller coaster ride of a market kept the longer-term investors guessing as to whether they should put some money to work or not. That question got harder to answer with each trip higher that ended the next move lower.
Investor behavior in a bear market hasn't changed in decades. Most are trained to try to nail the bottom and then hold on as the rally takes them for a long bull market ride. This isn't normally the case, as they will often buy "a" bottom and try to hold only to find out that the bottom they bought was wrong and they're losing more money.
In between those tops and bottoms, we all tend to decide that we want to buy or sell a stock. Inevitably, the mean market volatility leads to the following fun situation… Full Story
Stock Market Crash Today: Why the Stimulus Bill Rally Won't Last
We've seen it all before. A positive headline sends stocks rallying, only to see them tumble down to new lows.
And it's going to happen this time too.
You see, this is all part of a pattern after a stock market crash. Short-lived rallies collapse into lower lows.
Take a look for yourself and find out what's coming next...
How Long Will the Coronavirus Market Crash Last?
Even while legislators discuss measures to relieve the economy in the coronavirus market crash, volatility runs high.
It's uncertain where the market is going day-to-day.
The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) is above 60.
It never went higher than 30 in 2019.
That's making it hard for investors to know what's coming next.
That's why we want to talk about how long the coronavirus market crash will last.
Here's what we know about that so far.
Whether or not the answer becomes clear, there's only one thing you need to worry about...
The Do's and Don'ts of Trading Through a Recession
Never in my lifetime could I have imagined an event like this.
Just a few months ago, COVID-19 hadn't even been named. It was simply considered a different strain of the flu. Today, it's a worldwide pandemic that has taken over the globe, eclipsing tragedies and disasters like 9/11 and the financial crisis of 2008.
Based on the numbers coming from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this pandemic should run its course by the end of July if it continues on its exponential trend.
But that's more than three months away. And already, at its lowest, the market fell 37%, breaking all the wrong kinds of records.
Trading has been halted multiple times. Stocks have seen their worst days in history. People everywhere have lost a ton of money.
Yesterday's bounce was welcome – but we're not in the clear. If the CDC has anything to say about it, we're just getting started. We could be dropped into a recession any day now, and the panic is evident in the up-and-down movement of the market.
The word "recession" is scary. But it's not the end of the world – not even close. In fact, you could come out of it even stronger than you were before.
See, the stock market is typically two to three months ahead of everything else. If the pandemic lasts through July, then I expect the market's bottom to hit by the end of April.
Now, the move higher from there will be slow. It could take until the end of the year before the market begins to rise significantly. But don't wait around – there's a lot you can do until then… Full Story
What the Fed's Really Doing, Who They're Bailing Out, and What's Next
The Fed's been taking some desperate measures lately in these desperate times.
But markets haven't fully priced in their rescue and recovery programs for what they really are, which is an admission that "this time is different" and it's too late to stop what's going to happen next.
How Do I Protect My 401(k) from the Coronavirus Crash?
The coronavirus has sent stocks tumbling as much as 40% this year. Chances are, your 401(k) hasn't been immune.
What if you were planning on retiring in a couple months? What if you just retired? Should you stop contributing? Should you leave your contributions in cash?
Believe it or not, the answer might be to start contributing more...