The problem isn’t that you were wrong. You could have made big money on this one. But the problem is you didn’t hedge against your ignorance. Not being rude here. We all have unknown unknowns. Even if something sounds impossible, It’s not impossible for it to materialize. Therefore it becomes improbable and ... Worthy of a small premium !
Hello Max E, 2 questions please. 1. Did you use a stop loss? 2. Did you have a predefined profit target? We all make mistakes Max E. I applaud you for sharing your story. You will learn from this and get better. Get back up and start over. Always use risk management and money management. One trade or investment should not hurt you. Be patient it will come. Don't rush it and don't be greedy.
Max Given the virus scenario and the initial response to it by the scientific community (which has been way off) and governments around the world, with free markets, you would have been right and the markets would all be down big time. Not sure if you shorted stocks or did options? However, the markets are controlled. Who knows the details but there is a plunge protection team. It might not be one group but there a presences when the market is down big that appears. You were not wrong based on the information available. You just did not really believe that markets are rigged. There is a lot of vested interested in keeping the markets up. It wears about a 10% collar. We are still in a very bad place. Recent stimulus packages are beyond belief. 1. Don't pay your rent or mortgage for 3 months. Makes no difference if you were already behind or had a very low credit score or whatever... How is that going to work out? 2. Really don't pay any kind of bill. Just write on it Corona. 3. Don't work and make $52,000 a year via unemployment? How is that going to work? 4. Get all kinds of loans, just use the word Coronavirus in the documentation - approved. How is that going to work? We have set some very bad precedence and are conditioning some bad habits. Will not end well. On the flip side, had nothing been done, we probably would have had rioting and looting everywhere. On the lighter side, if you had made a lot of money you can't do anything with it now. Can't travel, can go out to eat, can't go to a show, can't, can't, can't.
That's true but I'll go one step further and suggest that ignorance has paid dividends on this ocassion. Investors that simply bought stocks because they were cheap based on historical P/E, not future P/E or bought the flattening of the curve when it in no way suggests this thing is anywhere near to being over, have done extremely well from this bull rally. I know the OP probably doesn't want to hear this also but he probably exited at the top of this bull rally.
You have my sympathy. I was loaded up with call options at ATH in late Feb. Bad call on my part. Took a bloody beating in March, big time losses. Now slowly crawling back. I know you will be back too. Good luck.
Here are some of the rules when you trade in the stock market: 1. The market is rule by fear and greed. 2. There no such thing as easy money aka no sure thing in the market. 3. The stock market can stay irrational longer than you stay solvent. 4. Don’t fight the fed. 5. Remember when you bet big...you either win big or lose big.
Unless of course you're an insider US financial instituton that bought into the rally with conviction and fed buy signals to the algos each time the appalling jobs data was released. It's amazing what pumping billions into the market at key moments will do to alter market sentiment.
Complete utter bs. Your inability to understand fundamentals and how to value stocks has led you to believe in conspiracy theories.