Dow is currently in a freefall

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

I don't know why everyone is so hot on the market being up or down a few hundred, heck even a few thousand points. When I started my index fund way back in '02 I was crapping my pants, but was luckily ensured by my investment guy to just stick with it. Some years I felt like a genius and once in a while I felt very, very bad. As of 2018 I feel like a genius again.

It's odd to me now, after 16 years, that people keep using it as a cudgel with which to bash the opposition.

eta: If you're a risk-averse when it comes to investing and you're looking at a retirement fund I totally recommend sticking ~$500-1000/month into it. It'll pay off.

- Doc

[_Hawkeye]

Who said the stock market performance matters.... oh yeah, that's right, Trump and bach did.

[Guest]

[_Hawkeye]

The purpose of this thread was to point out that the market went into correction mode. That seemed to matter to some people. But I don't see how anyone is claiming this matters in a political sense. It is just a funny side-note that the correction happened shortly after Trump used it to praise himself. And bach asked for an update, so I provided. But he was only asking for an update because the market was up on that particular day. Now it is down again.

Right now we're still in a correction and the DOW is looking more and more like a consistent heartbeat.

[_Hawkeye]

I don't know why everyone is so hot on the market being up or down a few hundred, heck even a few thousand points. When I started my index fund way back in '02 I was crapping my pants, but was luckily ensured by my investment guy to just stick with it. Some years I felt like a genius and once in a while I felt very, very bad. As of 2018 I feel like a genius again.

It's odd to me now, after 16 years, that people keep using it as a cudgel with which to bash the opposition.

eta: If you're a risk-averse when it comes to investing and you're looking at a retirement fund I totally recommend sticking ~$500-1000/month into it. It'll pay off.

- Doc

The funny thing is, I know quite a few Trump supporters who don't understand the market at all (surprise!) and are just now getting into it for the first time in their lives because they seem to think it is some kind of magic cash machine. So they sign up for their warehouse job's 401k. They don't understand that they're basically buying stocks at their highest points ever. They're likely to be losing money in the short term, which is significant because these are typically the same kinds of people who don't stay at the same job for more than a few years.

[_Bach]

KG, why the need for the sock puppet?

[_Gadianton]

I feel like this post is like an argument on global warming where every snowstorm is a refutation and every heat wave an affirmation. I think the large cut in the corporate tax cut will boost a lot of growth in profits in the short term. But while Trump is losing advisors, adopting more right wing policies, damaging international relationships and engaging in trade wars, I think you will see a lot of volatility in the markets.

Relevant Article:

Why Do We Still Care About the Dow?

It would be extremely convenient if there were still one number or index we could check to make sense of our economy, especially during times of chaos. But the stock market might actually be our worst option. Rather than being a useful indicator, it's an anxiety-amplification device. It reflects investors' own reactions, and often hysterical overreactions, as they progress through the turmoil.

I don't know Cinepro, if a financial market with so many brilliant players commanding every analytic imaginable while facing virtually no friction is an "anxiety amplification device," and this is common sense, then why would it be such a mystery that the poor and broken who lose their housing in a market with all kinds of knowledge gaps and frictions don't straightaway make for a model market by finding cheaper housing elsewhere, instead of sticking around on the streets?

[_Hawkeye]

Kevin Graham, why the need for the sock puppet?

Because of people like you out there on the web, unfortunately.

[_cinepro]

I don't know Cinepro, if a financial market with so many brilliant players commanding every analytic imaginable while facing virtually no friction is an "anxiety amplification device," and this is common sense, then why would it be such a mystery that the poor and broken who lose their housing in a market with all kinds of knowledge gaps and frictions don't straightaway make for a model market by finding cheaper housing elsewhere, instead of sticking around on the streets?

Sorry, I don't see the connection between the two.

If you're suggesting that both are examples of broken and imperfect markets, you're probably correct. But they would appear to be broken and imperfect in different ways, and for different reasons.

Maybe one similarity would be that people who stay homeless in areas with high housing costs and low job prospects are like the people who hold on to a stock that is declining in value, hoping that it will recover. And those who sell a stock that is losing value and search out more solid investments are like those who move to seek out areas with lower housing costs and better job prospects.

[_subgenius]

Who said the stock market performance matters.... oh yeah, that's right, Trump and bach did.

And it is still up higher than the day Trump was sworn in, correct?