Nerves of Steel — Stockmarket Volatility & Tariffs

You need nerves of steel when investing sometimes. I was starting to feel like the world’s biggest idiot to keep popping a little bit of money in here, and a little bit there… as the bottom fell out of the financial markets day after day, week after week.

It seemed like a good time to buy, until it wasn’t. Each time, it looked like the end might have happened, hit bottom. And then the markets fell again. Hard.

Then suddenly, I’m having my tea and the news is reporting that the Dow Jones is up 10%. The Dow Jones that was down 5% yesterday, and the day before and the day before that, and which lost a year’s worth of growth in the past month or so.

The fastest way to go for broke is investing in the stock market while Donald Trump is in power. Scary.

I’d already decided to stop adding to tech shares in case the end was terminal. Too risky. Too exposed. Now I’m thinking maybe I chickened out too soon. They bounced back spectacularly this afternoon.

Anyway, I’m reminded that we need to keep calm and carry on while investing in the stock market. Should I have not sold stocks? Possibly, but I reinvested the funds in something that seemed like it might do better when the bounce back happened, so I wasn’t out of the market. I was just mitigating my risk, by not putting all my eggs in one basket.

What will tomorrow bring? My guess is, this US administration isn’t out of surprises yet, and it’ll be a volatile time for the next five years.

Trade wars are interesting. It made me smile to see that China had ramped up tariffs this morning. I can cope with the ups and downs in financial markets. I just hope there isn’t another pandemic.