Liquidate entire portfolio until virus is over?

Thrugelmir

Alexland said:

Hmm, just noticed the pound has dropped down to around 1.22 USD in recent days which should soften the impact of the market decline for UK investors. I am starting to wonder if we will get an opportunity as good as last week again.

Given the weekends developments. My gut feeling is there'll be a sea of red this week. As herd instinct kicks in. I've got my shopping list of stocks ready. 

womble_87

Just imagine a car crashing in slow motion. 

bostonerimus

Thrugelmir said:

Alexland said:

Hmm, just noticed the pound has dropped down to around 1.22 USD in recent days which should soften the impact of the market decline for UK investors. I am starting to wonder if we will get an opportunity as good as last week again.

Given the weekends developments. My gut feeling is there'll be a sea of red this week. As herd instinct kicks in. I've got my shopping list of stocks ready. 

Yes I imagine next week will see further drops in the markets and I’ll be rebalancing back to 75/25. Right now I’m glad of the cash, annuity, rent and DB pension I put in place in better times, although I’ve told my tenants not to worry about the rent if they have to stay off work. I believe that people with mostly equity investments will eventually recover if they don’t panic, but It’s hard not to panic and having a diverse range of financial resources beyond the stock and bond markets just makes it a little easier to stay calm. Maybe that’s the lesson to take away from this. Mortgage pre-payment, and simple cash seem a bit more attractive right now.

BrockStoker

Given the weekends developments. My gut feeling is there'll be a sea of red this week. As herd instinct kicks in. I've got my shopping list of stocks ready. 

I think there's a fair chance that the worst of the drops are over, but my bets are already hedged as I'll have more new cash to invest at the start of the new tax year. Either way I'm glad to have got the prices I paid last Wed/Thurs/Fri. With further falls I'll be happy to bag even more bargains.

Although any loss of life is terrible and the situation is not good (I'm personally stuck between a rock and a hard place - basically homeless), aside from that, I couldn't be happier how this is working out for me so far.

Hope everyone here is doing alright in these turbulent times.

greggymagic

Alexland said:

Hmm, just noticed the pound has dropped down to around 1.22 USD in recent days which should soften the impact of the market decline for UK investors. I am starting to wonder if we will get an opportunity as good as last week again.

What part of this weekend's developments gives you hope that we won't see another net week of Red?
I'm seeing nothing to suggest there's anything to rally the markets next week apart from people jumping in on the hope that last week was the bottom - once that moneys in then who knows. 

Do people really think last week was the bottom? 

Alexland

Maybe I missed it but I didn't see anything this weekend that wouldn't have been reasonably expected last week. Sure the situation got worse but that should have already been priced in. Did anyone have hope it would get better? It's hard to say how much of the increasing number of cases are yet to be priced. If the world hasn't fully accepted that this thing is going to happen maybe there's more to go.

NorthernJoe

Alexland said:

Maybe I missed it but I didn't see anything this weekend that wouldn't have been reasonably expected last week. Sure the situation got worse but that should have already been priced in. Did anyone have hope it would get better? It's hard to say how much of the increasing number of cases are yet to be priced. If the world hasn't fully accepted that this thing is going to happen maybe there's more to go.

Pictures of central London Saturday night suggest a significant proportion of the world has no idea what's coming. 

Calling it now. . . 15% down across the board tomorrow 

greggymagic

Alexland said:

Maybe I missed it but I didn't see anything this weekend that wouldn't have been reasonably expected last week. Sure the situation got worse but that should have already been priced in. Did anyone have hope it would get better? It's hard to say how much of the increasing number of cases are yet to be priced. If the world hasn't fully accepted that this thing is going to happen maybe there's more to go.

State of emergency in USA?
Travel bans for USA, Spain and much of Europe?
Spain being put on lock down? 
TUI and Jet2 cancelling all holidays to Spain? 
UK govt potentially asking over 70s to self isolate for 4 months?
Irish Government asking pubs to close for the next month?

You saw all that last week?

At this stage it's not so much as what's priced in - surely it's actual real world figures that businesses are going to take a kicking?

I'm not criticising or anything as I really don't know, but I think green tomorrow and then red for the rest of the week. 

Thrugelmir

BrockStoker said:

Given the weekends developments. My gut feeling is there'll be a sea of red this week. As herd instinct kicks in. I've got my shopping list of stocks ready. 

I think there's a fair chance that the worst of the drops are over, 

This will be a reality check for many as to what investing is actually about. Been far too easy for a number of years to simply make money by doing nothing more than buying the market. Any forecasts for the markets in the week ahead?  

JustAnotherSaver

Can someone explain to me how this differs from the advice that is thrown around to not try and 'time the market' as i've clearly understood something wrong. Just not sure what.