I'm not looking for a quick return so I assume now would be a good time to buy my first shares?
I realise they may well fall lower but I assume the chances of them going back to a normal level in a few years is more likely than them going down much further in the short term?
I would have thought it`s a very good time. I`m already in and it`s about the time to start looking for bargains again
China will start to wake up properly in around three weeksNot sure the carnage is over yet.... all depends on how / if / when China wakes up.
I have worked in this industry for 33 years this year and this last couple of weeks has been the worst since I was working in the City at the age of 18 dealing with the Great Storm and the Stockmarket crash of 1987. It was brutal and this is brutal. Cautious clients have seen falls of 10% plus in 3 weeks. Adventurous clients have seen falls of 25% plus in some cases.
Sometimes when money is involved, the rational side of your brain tells you to sit it out and stay calm but the emotional side sometimes makes people do irrational things.
Warren Buffet is one of the most successful investors of all time. Two of his quotes are.
“Be fearful when others are being greedy and be greedy when others are being fearful”
and
“Our favourite holding period is forever”
However, this only applies if you make the right decisions. Investing in individual shares is very risky. I have had my fingers burnt many times. My worst loss 97% of value. What could possibly go wrong with an African Mining company in war torn country?
I am a fan of diversification and investing in line with risk tolerance. It’s no good ticking a box on a risk questionnaire saying you are happy to see falls of 15% and then being shocked when the investment falls by 15%.
Selling in a crisis is never a good idea though for me.
The American markets are up 9% based on Trump declaring an emergency. This frees up $$$$. The UK market is forecast to open 350 points up on Monday. This will however be very much dependant on the evolving crisis
Not sure the carnage is over yet.... all depends on how / if / when China wakes up.
Something solid like Unilever, diageo or unit trusts, loads to choose
Too many individual shares can still dive, tourism, airlines very risky
do you not work with hedging mechanisms to mitigate stock losses? Have worked on the corporate desk and private individuals desk back in the day, I was always astounded as to what the differential drops were between the two groups of investors, say over a 5 year time frame. private investors were always stock or fund buyers and in later years structured products but either way other than a token weighting in AAA bonds that was it. corporates would invest in a lot more put options, currency hedges, commodities etc as part of their overall portfolio.
I would be surprised if anyone on BM has lost as much as I did in the markets over such a short time frame of about 48 hours (think it was the year 2000) with a range of call options I bought and put options (I sold/underwrote ) on the nasdaq tech sector just before it crashed - still piss myself when I look back as I was an arrogant twat who thought he had the Midas touch :-)
people are going to have sit-this one out if they are holding stocks and shares and possibly expect some further drops I said this a few weeks ago the strength of short term global markets hinge on how the covid19 story plays out in the states and for how long, if we see any necessity to implement an Italian style lockdown over there ( even in an individual state) I would not be surprised to see another 20% - 30% drop from the indices price closes from yesterday.