This week and last have been very volatile and potentially disorienting.
Should you get out of the market?
Should you get in the market?
It doesn’t help when the financial journalists are running with taglines intended to get reader share such as:
‘Buy and Hold Is Dead’
‘Technical Markers Converging To Signal Prolonged Bear Market’
You get the idea.
There is absolutely no way you can make a call in the middle of volatility if you don’t already have a strategy in place in the form of a Financial Plan.
Acting randomly as a tactician may result in positive results, but you will be making micro decisions blindly if they aren’t tied to a strategy.
I’m not saying there aren’t times to enter and exit a market when assets get volatile. But those entry and exit points need to be determined in advance, with metrics that identify what triggers a respective entry or exit.
Otherwise you may be operating from a place of emotion or, at best, randomness.
What to do now? Get yourself a Financial Plan so you are ready when volatility strikes.
(Full Disclosure: I am a Fee-Only Financial Planner. Here’s my website.)