FYI: Jean Melek feels queasy. The 50-year old school teacher’s investments have dropped almost 8 percent over the past 30 days. Plenty of forecasters say stocks will fall further. “We’ve been getting frequent newsletter emails from Charles Schwab,” she says. “They’re telling us not to panic. But for us, those emails are having the opposite effect.”
Jean’s brokerage has the right idea. But it’s tough to harness stock market panic. News media networks love reporting bad news. If they can find someone calling for financial Armageddon, they happily amplify that voice. The recent market crash is no exception. And it’s especially tough on investors like Jean. She and her 48-year old husband have never experienced a stock market crash. They first started to invest in 2009. U.S. stocks have risen every year since then.
U.S. stocks rose in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. That was an all-time record calendar-year streak. As I wrote in April, such consistent gains aren’t normal. Instead, stock market drops are normal.
Regards,
Ted
https://assetbuilder.com/knowledge-center/articles/when-stocks-drop-the-biggest-threat-is-the-person-you-face-in-the-mirror
