Market Update
A piece of advice from me - if you're tempted to buy a favorite stock right now, buy "small."
Yesterday's big intraday recovery was an encouraging sign to see. It's the kind of thing day-traders live for, certainly.
But for regular investors, keep in mind that many of the biggest one-day percentage-gain recovery rallies in stock market history happened during severe downtrends - not at the start of new uptrends.
So even though I'm leaning bullish, and think we're close to a tradeable bottom, it's no guarantee we're out of the woods yet.
The aftermath of Wednesday's announcement on interest rates, by the Federal Reserve, could serve as yet another knee-jerk inducement of more panic selling before we finally see a rally that can pull the market higher.
Consider the hypothetical chart below as one possibility that I've seen many times before - one that looks bad before it gets better:
That's why I say - if you're going to buy, buy "small"" - because during my early trading career, a lot of my biggest percentage portfolio losses came at times like now.
We're drawn like flies to honey when we see a bunch of depressed stocks - stocks we know and like - suddenly rocket 10% like yesterday.
But volatility works both ways.
So if you went out and bought your usual number of shares in a handful of stocks , thinking "this has got to be the bottom" - and those same stocks end up giving back all those gains and more - you could easily punch a big hole in your portfolio and sell at the absolute worst time - just before the real rally begins.
Just something to consider as we work our way through this difficult market period.
Best of goodBUYs,
Jeff Yastine
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