[Dow] dropped 250 points today?

[thelateinvestor43]

What's going on with the Dow dropping 250 points today?

I'm new to all this.

[Edited post title to read "Dow" rather than "S&P" -- moderator oldcomputerguy]

[livesoft]

Please double check your statement. Thanks.

[Mactheriverrat]

Normal profit taking.

[UpperNwGuy]

A new tariff was just announced. (The S&P dropped, but not 250 points.)

[Kenkat]

The Dow dropped 250+ today. The S&P 500 dropped around 27 points I believe. It’s only about a 1% drop. It happens, not infrequently even - normal ups and downs, you’re best to tune them out as they are not important or require you to do anything but stick to a long term plan.

[JoMoney]

The "S&P" and the Dow (Dow Jones Industrial Average, or Dow 30) are different indexes.
The S&P 500 did not drop 250 "points" today. The Dow did go from 28,051.40 to 27,783.04 , so it dropped just over 250 ... which represents less than 1% of it's value. The stock market fluctuates up and down by 1% on the regular basis. There's nothing unusual or noteworthy about that.

[anonsdca]

The S&P dropped 27 points the Dow dropped 268 point, both less than 1%. 10 years ago, maybe even 5 years ago, that amount of a point drop would have been headline news because the percentage would have been higher for the single day. Today, with the markets near all time highs, its just another day that doesn't mean much.

[JoeRetire]

What's going on with the S&P dropping 250 points today?

Nothing special, assuming you meant the Dow and not the S&P 500.

The market goes up and it goes down less than 1 percent quite often. Surely you've seen this happen before, no matter how new.

[Trader Joe]

What's going on with the S&P dropping 250 points today?

I'm new to all this.

No, this information is not correct. The S&P 500 ended today -27.11 (-0.86%).

[Stinky]

Today, with the markets near all time highs, its just another day that doesn't mean much.

Agreed that one day doesn’t mean anything.

But if we have one or two more days of drops like this, watch the news media for “stock market plunging” stories.

[mindboggling]

You have posted many times in the past week or so. I don't mean to be harsh but you should not invest in the stock market at this time. An old saying goes: "don't invest in things that you do not understand". I think you should study the history of stock market prices. The market goes up and down all the time. Reasons given are after the fact. If you invest you are likely to panic-sell at the wrong time. A "fund of funds" with a small allocation to stocks might be OK, but bond prices go up and down, too. The SP500 dropped less than one-percent today. If this bothers you--be careful out there.

Good luck, and study up before you invest! If you are truly a "late investor", trying to catch-up is dangerous.

[anonsdca]

Today, with the markets near all time highs, its just another day that doesn't mean much.

Agreed that one day doesn’t mean anything.

But if we have one or two more days of drops like this, watch the news media for “stock market plunging” stories.

Yes, agree. A 5% drop in a few days is going to spook a lot of people. Just look at the folks posting here. "Should I invest at all time highs", "should I go all cash", "I am getting scared...", etc.

[retire2022]

Op

watch this video on Random Walk Down Wall Street Burton Malkiel:

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/ra ... theory.asp

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burton_Malkiel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Random_ ... all_Street

also this is how indexing is based upon


PAUL SOLMAN:

To Professor Desai, the big idea of finance is illustrated by the Quincunx machine in Boston's Museum of Science: the ability to find order in a seemingly random, and therefore risk-forsaken, world.

Galton Board/Quincunx or target or Pascal Probabilities

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m4bxse2JEQ

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/world ... half-story

[thelateinvestor43]

You have posted many times in the past week or so. I don't mean to be harsh but you should not invest in the stock market at this time. An old saying goes: "don't invest in things that you do not understand". I think you should study the history of stock market prices. The market goes up and down all the time. Reasons given are after the fact. If you invest you are likely to panic-sell at the wrong time. A "fund of funds" with a small allocation to stocks might be OK, but bond prices go up and down, too. The SP500 dropped less than one-percent today. If this bothers you--be careful out there.

Good luck, and study up before you invest! If you are truly a "late investor", trying to catch-up is dangerous.

I invested in the FSKAX Total Marker Index. Why won't I be ok if I don't understand everything at this moment? The index will work automatically without my help all I have to do is add money.

[H-Town]

What's going on with the Dow dropping 250 points today?

I'm new to all this.

Last December, there were multiple days that Dow dropping 1,000 points or more. It was close to 20% drop when all dust settled.

Just set it and forget it. Then come here and discuss. They are de-facto therapy sessions to coup with market drops and they're free.

[thelateinvestor43]

Sorry, I screwed up and meant the DOW. I still don't get all this, but YES I KNOW the stock market goes up and down, but the news said "in one of the worse losses since October" or something.

[sport]

You have posted many times in the past week or so. I don't mean to be harsh but you should not invest in the stock market at this time. An old saying goes: "don't invest in things that you do not understand". I think you should study the history of stock market prices. The market goes up and down all the time. Reasons given are after the fact. If you invest you are likely to panic-sell at the wrong time. A "fund of funds" with a small allocation to stocks might be OK, but bond prices go up and down, too. The SP500 dropped less than one-percent today. If this bothers you--be careful out there.

Good luck, and study up before you invest! If you are truly a "late investor", trying to catch-up is dangerous.

I invested in the FSKAX Total Marker Index. Why won't I be ok if I don't understand everything at this moment? The index will work automatically without my help all I have to do is add money.

If you have too much in stock for your risk tolerance, you might get scared and sell when the market takes a big drop. That would be buying high and selling low. That is not a recipe for success.

[HippoSir]

Sorry, I screwed up and meant the DOW. I still don't get all this, but YES I KNOW the stock market goes up and down, but the news said "in one of the worse losses since October" or something.

Can you explain why you are concerned? October was two months ago, worst losses since then is meaningless. The market sometimes goes up, other times it goes down. Welcome to investing.

[livesoft]

nvm .

[BogleMelon]

Sorry, I screwed up and meant the DOW. I still don't get all this, but YES I KNOW the stock market goes up and down, but the news said "in one of the worse losses since October" or something.

Wait then until it drops 30% and see how the news will put it out!
News have to exaggerate things to sell. Turn it off. It won't teach you anything new. Read quality books on investing, that will teach you what you want to know. Good luck!

[2pedals]

Nobody knows nothing, it's all you need to know about today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLCfkmaqI6k

[retire2022]

Sorry, I screwed up and meant the DOW. I still don't get all this, but YES I KNOW the stock market goes up and down, but the news said "in one of the worse losses since October" or something.

Op

Best to follow percentage rather than points

SP500 definition which is 500 large cap companies

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sp500.asp

Dow definition, which was 30 stocks and price weighted, the dow is not accurate

https://www.investopedia.com/dow-30-is- ... ng-4684246

[Phineas J. Whoopee]

Sorry, I screwed up and meant the DOW. I still don't get all this, but YES I KNOW the stock market goes up and down, but the news said "in one of the worse losses since October" or something.

October was only the month before last.

Dow is not an acronym. It's usually used to mean the Dow Jones Industrial Average, initialism DJIA. There exist other Dow Jones averages. Dow Jones & Company no longer publishes them, having sold the rights, which are currently held by S&P Dow Jones Indices.

PJW

[Mactheriverrat]

Nobody knows nothing, it's all you need to know about today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLCfkmaqI6k

The MILLIONS of people who have their personal 401-k's and ride through the pain of a bear market when they should have switched to bonds - The when the bear market was over switched back into growth funds. Their the one's that don't really know anything. Then they are suckered in giving their money to like's of Morgan Stanley's of the world for a 1% to 2% fee. And that's after years of no guidance in their 401-k accounts.

[zxllxz]

The Market moves every day. Sometimes up, sometimes down. It is the nature of markets. You can see this at this web site:
https://www.macrotrends.net/2490/sp-500-ytd-performance The chart allows you to compare different years.

[rascott]

What's going on with the Dow dropping 250 points today?

I'm new to all this.

I'm going to concur with another poster...I honestly don't think you are ready to invest in anything, much less equities.

Today was a nothing day. Stocks don't move in linear fashion.... over a day, week, month, year, or even decade.

[Phineas J. Whoopee]

Nobody knows nothing, it's all you need to know about today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLCfkmaqI6k

The MILLIONS of people who have their personal 401-k's and ride through the pain of a bear market when they should have switched to bonds - The when the bear market was over switched back into growth funds. Their the one's that don't really know anything. Then they are suckered in giving their money to like's of Morgan Stanley's of the world for a 1% to 2% fee. And that's after years of no guidance in their 401-k accounts.

How can we tell, at the time, that a bull market is ending, and detect at the time that a bear market is ending?

PJW

[rascott]

Sorry, I screwed up and meant the DOW. I still don't get all this, but YES I KNOW the stock market goes up and down, but the news said "in one of the worse losses since October" or something.

Op

Best to follow percentage rather than points

SP500 definition which is 500 large cap companies

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sp500.asp

Dow definition, which was 30 stocks and price weighted, the dow is not accurate

https://www.investopedia.com/dow-30-is- ... ng-4684246

Though it is amazing how well they've long tracked each other.

I've often wondered how someone equal weighting the DJIA average has done vs a SP500 holder.

Ther DJIA is a price weighted index... which defies any common sense..... but even with that it has tracked the SP500 fairly closely for a long time

[HomerJ]

Sorry, I screwed up and meant the DOW. I still don't get all this, but YES I KNOW the stock market goes up and down, but the news said "in one of the worse losses since October" or something.

Heh, October was 30 days ago.

I bet the headline, "One of the worst losses in the past 30 days!!" wouldn't have got your attention as much.

Financial news is all junk. Click-bait. They are constantly stating "worst this, historical that", just to get you to click on it.

Ignore all of it. Daily news means nothing. We're investing here for 10,20,30,50 years.

[jebmke]

I thought there was a universal "markets are plummeting today" thread.

[jebmke]

Heh, October was 30 days ago.

Any time the market goes down there is a "worst since ____" benchmark out there.

Still waiting for the "worst since October 1987"

[tesuzuki2002]

What's going on with the Dow dropping 250 points today?

I'm new to all this.

[Edited post title to read "Dow" rather than "S&P" -- moderator oldcomputerguy]

SWEET!

[HomerJ]

The MILLIONS of people who have their personal 401-k's and ride through the pain of a bear market when they should have switched to bonds - Then when the bear market was over switched back into growth funds. Their the one's that don't really know anything.

No one knows when the bear market is starting or when it's over. You can't just switch to bonds, and then back to growth funds.

There's nothing wrong with riding through the pain of a bear market... Buy and hold, stay the course. Have you read any of the posts here?

Then they are suckered in giving their money to like's of Morgan Stanley's of the world for a 1% to 2% fee.

This part I will agree with... People should avoid funds and advisors with large fees.

[tibbitts]

You have posted many times in the past week or so. I don't mean to be harsh but you should not invest in the stock market at this time. An old saying goes: "don't invest in things that you do not understand". I think you should study the history of stock market prices. The market goes up and down all the time. Reasons given are after the fact. If you invest you are likely to panic-sell at the wrong time. A "fund of funds" with a small allocation to stocks might be OK, but bond prices go up and down, too. The SP500 dropped less than one-percent today. If this bothers you--be careful out there.

Good luck, and study up before you invest! If you are truly a "late investor", trying to catch-up is dangerous.

I invested in the FSKAX Total Marker Index. Why won't I be ok if I don't understand everything at this moment? The index will work automatically without my help all I have to do is add money.

A lot of us aren't convinced that you are understand that you may invest for the rest of your lifetime and have nothing but losses. It's not high-probability, but definitely possible.

[TheDDC]

To the OP: Part of what you get from investing is YIELDS. Dividend yields should make up for losses.

Stay the course. Ride em cowboy.

-TheDDC

[yohac]

Most of the time there is no "why" to explain a daily move. Commentators make up reasons after the fact because they are paid to say something.

[tibbitts]

To the OP: Part of what you get from investing is YIELDS. Dividend yields should make up for losses.

Stay the course. Ride em cowboy.

-TheDDC

What? Dividend yields are roughly 2% per year. Losses can and often have exceeded 2% per day.

[Artful Dodger]

I can vividly remember the day in October 1987 when the DOW dropped 508 points. The difference then was 508 points was 22.6% of the DOW's value. Today's change was less than 1%. Truly, this is just every day stuff. Reactions to noise about trade tariffs, profit taking, or whatever. For comparison, a 22.6% drop in the DOW today would be 6280 points.

[pharmermummles]

I can vividly remember the day in October 1987 when the DOW dropped 508 points. The difference then was 508 points was 22.6% of the DOW's value. Today's change was less than 1%. Truly, this is just every day stuff. Reactions to noise about trade tariffs, profit taking, or whatever. For comparison, a 22.6% drop in the DOW today would be 6280 points.

I can't even imagine. People must have thought the world was ending. We will never see anything quite like it again due to trading halts. Really puts things into perspective.

[LiveSimple]

Stay the course and keep the noise out !!!

[jebmke]

I can vividly remember the day in October 1987 when the DOW dropped 508 points. The difference then was 508 points was 22.6% of the DOW's value. Today's change was less than 1%. Truly, this is just every day stuff. Reactions to noise about trade tariffs, profit taking, or whatever. For comparison, a 22.6% drop in the DOW today would be 6280 points.

My wife was in the business. We used to joke about crossing the street on certain blocks in the financial district (Boston) to avoid getting hit by falling analysts.

[mortfree]

So did you buy at all today or did you feel paralyzed to make a purchase when you saw the slight decrease?

In my taxable account:
I bought VTI about 15 minutes before market closed. Been holding out so figured now was a good time as any. But I’ll probably get hit with the dividend. Oh well

[danielc]

What's going on with the Dow dropping 250 points today?

I'm new to all this.

[Edited post title to read "Dow" rather than "S&P" -- moderator oldcomputerguy]

Over 1-day timescales the stock market basically behaves randomly. You can safely ignore daily news. In fact, you'll probably do better if you ignore news. I didn't know the market had dropped until I saw your post. I never look at the market.

[danielc]

Sorry, I screwed up and meant the DOW. I still don't get all this, but YES I KNOW the stock market goes up and down, but the news said "in one of the worse losses since October" or something.

October is extremely recent history. The stock market is volatile and a drop like today is perfectly normal and happens many times a year. A news headline that says "one of the worse losses since October" is literally financial porn / clickbait. It is a sensationalist headline; it takes a non-news event and makes it sound dramatic so that you'll click on the link. As I said in my earlier response, financial news is almost universally harmful to you. You will make better financial decisions if you literally just ignore financial news like most of us do here.

[TheDDC]

To the OP: Part of what you get from investing is YIELDS. Dividend yields should make up for losses.

Stay the course. Ride em cowboy.

-TheDDC

What? Dividend yields are roughly 2% per year. Losses can and often have exceeded 2% per day.

Say what?

What the OP is getting at is that there’s really no point investing without getting a cherry on top. Otherwise why invest? He needs to see the immediate gain as we all do. Dividends are one way of showing this. I’m talking VTSAX/VBTLX type dividends, not individual stocks.

-TheDDC

[JoeRetire]

I bought VTI about 15 minutes before market closed. Been holding out so figured now was a good time as any.

Just curious. What made today a good time?

[mortfree]

I bought VTI about 15 minutes before market closed. Been holding out so figured now was a good time as any.

Just curious. What made today a good time?

First trading day of December and VTI was below $160.

I had transferred funds to vanguard November 20th or so and just wanted to see how that month ended with other finances.

Still have 8k in cash at Vanguard. 6k is for 2020 Roth. The other 2k might be transferred back to credit union or hang out there until December
/January wraps up before it gets invested.

Thanks for asking.

[Snert]

Sorry, I screwed up and meant the DOW. I still don't get all this, but YES I KNOW the stock market goes up and down, but the news said "in one of the worse losses since October" or something.

I always love the "worst losses since _____" headlines! Often, the market goes way up after "worst" days. Look what's happened since the worst days of October, for example. The Dow is up over 1700 since then! We should cheer when we see a "worst" day and use the opportunity to buy more!

[thelateinvestor43]

What's going on with the Dow dropping 250 points today?

I'm new to all this.

I'm going to concur with another poster...I honestly don't think you are ready to invest in anything, much less equities.

Today was a nothing day. Stocks don't move in linear fashion.... over a day, week, month, year, or even decade.

I am ready to invest. I'm not scared with my measly $6k going up or down. I just didn't understand the news today.

[rascott]

What's going on with the Dow dropping 250 points today?

I'm new to all this.

I'm going to concur with another poster...I honestly don't think you are ready to invest in anything, much less equities.

Today was a nothing day. Stocks don't move in linear fashion.... over a day, week, month, year, or even decade.

I am ready to invest. I'm not scared with my measly $6k going up or down. I just didn't understand the news today.

Honestly best thing you could do then is invest it and forget it... maybe look once a year at it.

Proper investing is 'watching paint dry' level boring. There was no news of any meaning today. There was likely some profit taking after a very hot November. And there was a bit of weak manufacturing data out..... if you want to get into the noisy weeds.