Liquidate entire portfolio until virus is over?

Thrugelmir

EdGasketTheSecond said:

I had one gain but as you can see the market continues to head downwards, not helped by the administration of Flybe with knock-on effect on airports.

Companies with weak finances and poor business models are going to go under in the current environment. Flybe was already teetering. The virus was the final straw.  A spike in the price of aviation fuel would have caused the same outcome. 

Cheap money after the GFC has kept many zombie companies afloat. Normally in recessions only the fittest survive to fight another day. 

bostonerimus

I've rebalanced through several crashes and doing that has got me to the point where I'm not worried by market downturns anymore as a fraction of my pot is still far more than I need. So I'll do the same thing again ie no efforts to time the market, rebalance when things are getting out of whack and don't look at my balances too often.

ZeroSum

It's funny cos I've just bought a new car, and sold out a load of equities a week before the crash to fund it. Now chucking money back in at a low rate. 

Thrugelmir

ZeroSum said:

It's funny cos I've just bought a new car, and sold out a load of equities a week before the crash to fund it. Now chucking money back in at a low rate. 

Which will drop the fastest. The value of your new car or the investments you've bought. 

Alexland

If the market drops far enough I might sell a car to invest the money. Or maybe start a lemonade stand selling a refreshing relief from the virus on a hot day.

Rolandtheroadie

New to S&S, only been playing for around 8 months. We put the same into cash on hand as we put into S&S every month.
 We had been up a bit, but currently down 16%. Plan? Wait till payday and put some more in. I'm 45 and trying to be in the position to retire at 55. 
 Pension AVCs are down around 3.5% over the past couple of weeks, but they were up 20% in the 12 months before hand. 
In for the long term, if it's still all looking bad in 10 years, I'll have the option to keep working. 
So not going to sell to bank a 16% loss. 

DairyQueen

I note those who were invested well above their risk level and/or who were falsely confident of linear gains are appearing from the MSE woodwork. I have read literally 100s of threads on this forum in which the experienced have guided novices and yet still they ignore the basics.

Crystallising losses = adding insult to injury.

Thrugelmir

DairyQueen said:

Crystallising losses = adding insult to injury.

Depends on what investments one holds. Airlines for example. Was an obvious weakness as a sector. Likewise miners. 

Ciprico

DairyQueen said:

I note those who were invested well above their risk level and/or who were falsely confident of linear gains are appearing from the MSE woodwork. I have read literally 100s of threads on this forum in which the experienced have guided novices and yet still they ignore the basics.

Crystallising losses = adding insult to injury.

.....but this time it's different... !

Thrugelmir

123mat123 said:

DairyQueen said:

I note those who were invested well above their risk level and/or who were falsely confident of linear gains are appearing from the MSE woodwork. I have read literally 100s of threads on this forum in which the experienced have guided novices and yet still they ignore the basics.

Crystallising losses = adding insult to injury.

.....but this time it's different... !

The rise of passive investing in recent years has raised some debate about the implications for markets. One issue being the mechanical nature creating price distortions in a concentration of individual stocks, as stocks are promoted/demoted from indices  tracked.  Second is the aggregrate movement in the market depending on whether the fund manager is investing or liquidating at any given point in time (in response to how individual investors are reacting).  Time to be a hedge fund manager perhaps,