US healthcare system is a joke, and itās ill-prepared for this virus, I expect the market to fall more. Iām considering selling some of my US stocks, that are still in green, to have cash available to buy them again later at a lower price.
1 Like
Iāve seen āaverage downā posted quite a few times in the last week or so. Can you explain what it means and why I should consider it?
Without googling, Iām assuming it means drip feeding money in whilst the stock market is going through a dip, rather than waiting for it to bottom out?
1 Like
I saw a comment, attributed to Trump but I canāt confirm if he actually said it, that not everyone will be able to afford the vaccine. Thatās terrible, it seems money is more important to them than stopping a major epidemic that will probably kill thousands.
If it starts to spread though the wider population they need to vaccinate everyone for herd immunity, not just people who can afford to pay for it
Give this a read, itās fantastic:
3 Likes
Indeed. No-one can predict the bottom of a drop, and itās a foolās game to try. If youāre a regular investor with a long term outlook (think 10+ years) just keep buying on schedule, perhaps even top up a little if itās in your budget.
At a certain point, and Iām doing this myself, you have to ask if short-term pain is worth long term gain. I bought AAPL last week and itās down since then, and it hurts. But AAPL isnāt going anywhere, and when the supply chain issues are resolved that price is going right back up again. How fast? Donāt know, or care. AAPL is here to stay, so any short term loss is unfortunate but no issue.
Iām also buying VWRL repeatedly 
4 Likes
Whatās the benefits of averaging versus throwing in some extra cash when you notice a good buying opportunity
My personal hope is that this whole situation will level the playing field a bit and make the large companies reconsider putting all their eggs into one basket in terms of China. Itās just gone to show that if China slows down, the world slows down as a result when it really shouldnāt.
2 Likes
Read the link I shared and youāll find out 
Apologies, reading now, only just saw your link after I made my post
Been going through my shopping list, looking for quality companies that have a lot of momentum behind them, but were highly priced the last month and then filtering which ones had the biggest drop.
In the USA, AMD (-23%) and Shopify (-17%) stand out to me.
Intel (-20%) closely after that, donāt have the momentum but will release a whole host of new products, are well setup for 5G and are looking to start a price war.
Nvidia remains attractive, but seen somewhat less of a drop: -15%, but still a deep discount. Same for Bristol Meyer Squibb, Microsoft and Micron. BMS and Micron werenāt overpriced before the crash either, so a lower priority.
Keeping a close eye on Etsy, really wanted to get in that but seems to be used as a hedge against the corona virus and shot up massively, too much even though their results were good. Square is in a similar vein.
In the U.K., Ceres and Greatland remain interesting but theyāre super volatile. Seen some of the biggest drops, but today also some of the biggest gains.
And as expected, the rally didnāt last long. I expect to see the same in the USA.
BBC news:
Widespread transmission of coronavirus in the UK is now āhighly likelyā, Public Health England (PHE) has said. Medical Director Prof Paul Cosford said the country must be prepared.
That link applies to a rising market with the occasional dip. If the market continues to fall waiting would work better
So what youāre trying to say is youāre trying to predict the bottom? 
By all means do what you like with your money, itās yours after all, but Iām in this for the long run so averaging out is the best plan for me.
2 Likes
Thank you for this, it was a good reminder. I was tempted to put some extra money in my pension pot this morning, which lost 9% in mere days, but I think Iāll stick to my usual contributions and, as always, play the long game. Same thing with Freetrade, even if there are a couple of stocks Iāve kept an eye on for a while which I might finally buy.
Iām not trying to predict the bottom exactly. But I do think it will drop further and thereās no rush to buy. If Iām wrong and it goes back up it doesnāt really matter, Iāll just be back where I was a week ago.
Regardless of whether Iām predicting the bottom or not, the logic in that link only hold up if the market carries on up, so you are predicting the future as well 
Touche, my friend.
Although I have to say that in the last 37/37 corrections that the S&P500 had we have come out on top good odds hehe
The average correction lasts four months, All Iām saying is thereās no rush
also I might be wrong DYOR 
makes sense. True question is whether it is correction or will go in bear market? That would determine whether to sell existing positions or not
Am with Dave on this one.
Averaging down works perfectly when you are a long term investor and am happy to ride the ups and downs of the stock market. I am like that.
However, this is not your typical fall I would argue. The biggest drop since the financial crisis, and its driven by the corona virus - although one could argue more about somewhat irrational fear around it.
The benefit of Corona is that you can see the numbers of infections and hear the predictions of health officials. This makes it easier to āforecastā where we stand, and with number of infections outside China having gone up over the weekend, and the NHS now warning that widespread transmission in the U.K. is likely, I doubt that we have seen the bottom yet.
We do not know if a correction turns into a bear market, so on the short term averaging down may be more risky and on the long term may be less profitable at this junction.
Therefore, averaging down works but Iād rather build up my dry powder and sit on the a sideline for a bit.
With more and more companies issuing reduced revenue statements for the coming quarter or so, I also doubt weāll see an insanely speedy rebound, so even I donāt get the bottom right, with my dry powder in the app I can react very swiftly when news start turning more positive.
3 Likes
Not sure if this has been posted before but Warren Buffetās interview with CNBC is worth a watch. It is 2 hours long but itās always great to hear his thoughts especially in times like this.
1 Like