I call it the sleep factor.

Thank God, I bailed when Greece tanked and China rumbled. Cash is ok.

Congratulations. I did the same for the very same reasons. FYI my financial adviser didn't give me a call STILL!

That didn't last long.

Did anyone's F. A. contact them prior to this mess happening. I'm still waiting for a call !!

If they are doing or have done their job they have already taken action. Most do not respond to what is happening today and try to give one advice for today's roller coaster rides.

How is your portfolio management is set up is a function of ongoing communications with the FA and not what to do about today's wild ride.

If you are fee based the above will have taken care of your strategy.

If you are commission based they aren't going to call you while the roller coaster is flying up and down the steep hills....also think about switching to a fee based FA.

I am guilty of not paying enough attention. I just discovered that AAPL is a dividend stock. Not overly generous with the payout ratio, but it is something. Dividends that get too high and out-of-kilter bother me, anyway.

AAPL is starting to look a little staid to me. Staid but not too staid. I like that in a stock. I think I will look in at AAPL today, just to see how it is doing in these gyrations.

Disclaimer: This is not a stock tip. I have no credentials, no alphabet after my name. My AAPL comment this morning is only a musing. I know I probably do not have to disclaim because who would ever take stock tips from a screen name on the internet. :shocked:

The voice of reason. Only other thing I would add is use a planner not an advisor and be sure they have the CFP designation.

The market is gambling you can win or loose. You cannot be a winner forever.

Depends on when you do what.

The long term investor has only made out well with the stock market.

Just google the markets performance over the last 40 years the only notable direction in the long run is upwards.

And yes one can pick any specific time period and make a case for the downward blips.

Two weeks ago my new financial advisor said this wouldn't happen. Then it did. I am so glad I only have about 25% of my retirement in the stock market.

I would be interested if anyone that reacted by selling their stock would be willing to share how much they lost? I chose not to sell and at the lowest I was down about 25k

Remember you can still owe capital gains tax if sell. I.E. you bought the stock at 10, it went to 100 and fell to 80 so you lost 20. But you also lost the amount of the tax.

You only pay capital gains on the dollar amount that exceeds your capital losses. And since the original poster asked about those who sold their positions at a loss, the amount owed in taxes would be zero.

Perhaps I wasn't clear - I'm curious what the overall loss was if they sold, not just capital.