In a world where nothing is certain right now how do we know when it is time to buy?

Written by Adam Scott, CFP® on March 13, 2020.

This article was revised and updated on March 17th, 2020.

We are facing something we have never faced before in our lifetimes. That is a fact and, during a time when the news of the pandemic spreading and the recommendations on social distancing getting broader by the day, it can be hard to feel certain or safe about anything.

As troubling as it is to watch the unprecedented market decline and hard it is to tune out the fact that you know you are losing a lot on your investments, we need to maintain our health and the health and safety of our family, friends, and neighbors as the number one priority. Covid-19 which emerged late in 2019 in China has spread rapidly worldwide since then and is a global pandemic. The measures taken by leaders around the globe have been strong leaving most children without a classroom to go to, parents working from home or without a job altogether and investors panicking about what is to come.

Coronavirus: What the Viral Epidemic Means for Investors

Written by Adam Scott, CFP® on March 4, 2020.

Last week saw the worst week on Wall Street since 2008, as the Dow fell into correction likely due to the outbreak and spread of COVID-19, commonly called novel coronavirus. A market correction is a nerve-wracking event for investors, but the current uneasiness in the markets may be no cause for panic.

Market Impact

While the spread of COVID-19 is atypical, market corrections are not. In fact, they are an entirely normal process, and not altogether unexpected after experiencing the longest-running bull market on record. There have been 22 market corrections since 1974, and they are aptly named because the market usually “corrects” itself and returns prices to their longer-term trends. While the coronavirus is likely to cause economic impact into at least the second quarter of 2020, historically, Wall Street’s reaction to these types of epidemics has been short-lived. In the recent past, the 2002 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak, the 2012 Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak and the 2014-2016 Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak did negatively impact economic growth and disrupt the capital markets over short time horizons of one or two years. However, these past virus-triggered market corrections indicate that economies and financial markets will not be significantly impacted over the long-term.

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COVID-19 INFORMATION

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