With drama in the air over recent stock market drops, financial web sites are quick to help out those in distress with timeless advice. The market is not even in correction territory, much less a bear market, but investors need some salve for their 401Ks. Yahoo Finance chimes in with:
Here's how smart investors will react to today's market drama
Who doesn't want to be a smart investor? Their advice is to "just hang in there". That certainly is good advice for money managers who get their cut no matter what stocks do. So, if you lost money on stocks, you still get to pay management fees. That's smart.
Marketwatch offers:
Most top market timers are bullish on stocks
"...on average, the timers in the top quartile are recommending an equity exposure level that is 84 percentage points higher than among the bottom timers — who themselves, on average, are completely out of stocks."
See, the top quartile timers recommend an 84 percent higher equity exposure. What more do you need to know. Equity exposure for the win!
The Wall Street Journal notes:
Trading in Stocks, ETFs Was Halted More Than 1,200 Times Early Monday
Clearly a great sign for stock owners because if trading gets halted, no one else can sell a stock you own and make the price go down. There is a lot of safety built in to the very fabric of the market. What if you want to sell? Why would you ever want to sell? You would just force a stock to be halted. It's really better if no one ever sells.
Since I don't own any stocks, I was not really comforted by this priceless advice. However, if your nest egg is in stocks, you can sleep like a baby tonight.
