Friends
The volatility continues as an early morning 400 Dow point rally was quickly erased by midday. But, as the afternoon wore on, those who “needed” to sell apparently were able to do so during the morning rally, as stocks climbed higher in the last hour of trading. We’ve seen this show before, and as fascinating as it is, it’s best for long term investors just to stay out of harm’s way. You know your risk tolerance and you know the amount of volatility your allocation mix is likely to experience. We don’t act on emotion around here.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 287 points to finish the day at 25,339. The S&P 500 was up 38 points to close at 2,767. Gold was down $6 to trade at $1,221 per ounce, while oil was up $.65 to trade at $71.62 per barrel WTI.
As mentioned, we’ve seen this show many times over the past few years. Volatility begets volatility for a period of time, then things seem to find a level that pairs off the buyers and the sellers. There are always players who are using leverage that must be rooted out during these moments of volatility, and that accounts for some of the dramatic moves intraday that we see during these periods. Sure, there’s a bear market out there waiting for us at some point. Is this the beginning of that bear market- no one knows. In the long run it really doesn’t matter, there will, indeed, be bear markets ahead for us to navigate. Be prepared, be aware, be calm and be confident that game plan you have in place is designed to survive moments like this and thrive.
Have a great weekend everyone.
