An Open Letter to "The Market" in advance of Monday's Opening

[dickthegrouch]

For many years we small, independent, individual investors have listened to pundits tell us in times like this "Don't panic", "Leave your money invested for the long term", "The Market will 'bounce' back", and other such platitudes.

In the meantime, as last week shows, you, "The Market" are utterly incapable of taking your own advice. The ONLY reason the market swayed by 2000 "points" last week is your PANIC.

You, just as the rest of us, have been able to predict this financial crisis along with a medical one since the movies "Virus", "Outbreak", "28 Days Later" and others were released; since the financial effects of the AIDS virus on one particular community, mine, became obvious; since the beginning of this COVID-19 outbreak in NOVEMBER.

And yet now 3-4 months in, in true Republican fashion, because it's affecting your own families and your own addiction to money, you are severely messing with all of our financial futures.

I am 63, non-symptomatic, so-far, but in multiple other high risk groups, therefore I may never get to enjoy my retirement. There are multiple reasons for that, one of which is financial. My 401K lost 50,000 this week. My independent accounts went down by more than 10,000. No, you, the MARKET will not bounce back for me (or many others in my position), or if it does, it will do so at a rate more commensurate with the gravity coefficient of Pluto, than that of Jupiter which is what us older people need.

I get it, your bonus comes from your 'clever' manipulations of The Market. Producing nothing, you, play with OUR money, whether or not you're actually doing it on our behalf. You will not look so clever when the money you stole from the rest of us doesn't buy you the food you need, the electricity you need, the clothes you need. It may not even get you to work. It certainly won't help all the small business and one-unit landlords who have gone into foreclosure because their tenants lost their jobs and couldn't pay the rent, so we couldn't pay the mortgage.

Market members, you need to start being part of the solution, rather than adding to the problem with your own greed and herd panic mentality.

Even better you need to follow the advice you give to us small investors and stop being so hypocritical.

Even better, you need to invest those billions of commissions in industries that need to stay afloat to keep all of us alive, and in sectors that can improve the situation for all of us. AND Tell us what those are so, if we have cash available, we can help those industries and maybe ourselves into the bargain.

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Welcome to the same life boat my friend.

My guess is there are a few million in this this same shit storm.

[madville]

2. I divested everything in Mid-February when this virus started getting serious

Converted everything in my 401k-style plan to government bonds and everything in my Roth IRA to cash when the market was between 28500-29000. Now I am just waiting to get back in when this thing plateaus, I feel like it is going to get back down in the high-teens.

If I had stayed in I would easily be down 25% as well right now.

[dickthegrouch]

3. And some, now poor, sop lost when you sold high.

You are lucky, so far. Bully for you, you got yours.

Many of us will not be. How will you help?

[madville]

4. They don't lose anything unless they sell now.

It always comes back, you have to be prepared for weathering the ups and downs if in the market. I am going to put my money back in at some point as many others will and values will rise again. After age 60 my parents eased all their investments away from stocks and into low-risk options, staying in the market past that age is much riskier of course since there may not be years to wait for it to come back.

I know many people that had to delay retirement and keep working for several years past the 2000 and 2008/2009 crashes in order for their funds to recover from those downturns.

[Chainfire]

5. look at the bright side

Somebody will eventually make a hell of a lot of money off of your losings.

I really sympathize with you. You work, you save, you try to prepare for the future and greedy bastards stay up late at night scheming how to take it from you. I saw Warren Buffet, yesterday, saying that this was just an opportunity.....

I cleaned out my tiny retirement account ,except for five grand, in early Jan. and bought some land. I was just nervous about the market. I just looked out the window and the land is still there. I should have taken the rest out and spent it on Wild Turkey and Wild women.

The money I will have to pay in taxes on what I drew will be a hell of a lot less than I would have lost. I wish I could say that I was an investing genius, but I just got lucky on the timing......