I've long been pondering and putting off buying stock. With the fears of Coronavirus, it seems the stock market is down. Is this a good time to buy stock?
All in on Tesla, elon's gonna invent a cure any day now surely!
Seriously, the market is now back to where it was six months ago. Consider what that says about people trying you to tell you to "buy the dip now that things are cheap". You've got two choices... Buy index funds slowly and consistently regardless of the news, or learn to pick decently priced individual stocks based on your own fundamental analysis.
Ignore anyone who tells you to use technical analysis, they're an idiot, and if you venture into reddit/wallstreetbets, you are screwed.
This isn't a serious reply to bash anyone here but it makes me sad that after a crisis like this hits and many people die because they weren't prepared or they used all of their money as a result of the crisis, to think that a relative handful of people who have the capital to freely invest money into stocks of wealthy companies so that they can profit off them at a later point after the economy has recovered. It's always the same people isn't it? These opportunities don't come unless you've already got the money and education to make use of them. So what's the future look like? More of the same. Don't get me wrong though. It's the best thing to do if the opportunity is there for you.
I want to be wrong about this though. Maybe I'm seeing it from the wrong light. So if someone wants to tell me otherwise, feel free.
> These opportunities don't come unless you've already got the money and education to make use of them.
The question is if that's even an opportunity. The market may very well fall or be flat for the next decade. Having money does not equate to automatic making of more money - there's plenty of moneyed families who lost it all and went on to became cab drivers etc.
> So what's the future look like? More of the same.
The future looks relatively bright. In general, gigantic, unprecedented numbers of people are lifted out of poverty every year now. The world is already an amazing place compared to where it was just a hundred years ago, and it looks like the trend will continue. There are threats like climate change, resource depletion etc. but it's unclear if they can wipe out all of the gains we've already made.
My take is this: at the beginning of the Trump administration, P/E ratios were at the high range of "normal". There is another factor of four you could get in the "bubble" range but that is a special phenomenon that happens once a generation or so.
Today you always have people asking "is this a bubble?" because we remember the 1990s, but maybe by 2040 or so it something people might be ready to believe.
Under the Trump admin I think the stock market has gone up without visible means of support, but it has not gotten into the extreme bubble territory that we saw in the 1920s, 1960s and 1990s.
Thus now is certainly a chance to get in, but I can't be too excited about the market now.
Timing the market is a futile game. Take the Buffet approach... Buy because you like the fundamentals and hold forever.