View Single Post
      05-08-2020, 02:26 PM   #661
XutvJet
Major General
5556
Rep
5,372
Posts

Drives: 2011 Cayman Base, 2016 M235
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: Kansas City

iTrader: (-1)

I remain totally confused as to why the market continues to have upwards trajectory. Employment is really bad and I believe it will get worse. Right now, most of the lost jobs are blue collar. I'm a white collar worker in the environmental consulting industry and support mergers & acquisitions (due diligence). Our DD work has dried up 90%+ since mid-March. My private equity clients aren't doing deals for a multitude of reasons. The attorneys I work with have cut their hours significantly (i.e., taken big pay cuts). I'm taking voluntary vacation to help reduce the financial burden on our company. I'll likely be asked to temporarily reduce my hours and take a 20% pay cut and could possibly be furloughed. I have other white collar friends that are experiencing the same (mandatory vacation, furlough, pay cuts). I also have friends in the medical professional that have been furloughed or layed off because hardly anyone is doing elective surgery, PT, etc. I think the May and June unemployment numbers will be terrible.

As such, I feel the bottom is going to drop out in June/July (20%-30%+ drop). As the country opens back up (which I'm mostly in support of), I think there will be a second wave of outbreaks in the August-October timeframe and some of us will go back into a lock-down situation (maybe not as extreme). Hopefully the outbreaks will be better controlled and managed. A surge will certainly impact the market and the government can't keep sending out money it doesn't have.

I'm really wavering on selling a decent portion of my S&P 500 index funds and Berk Class B in my Roth, traditional IRA, and 401K and just holding it as cash. I wouldn't touch anything in my brokerage due to cap gains. These sales would represent about 15% of my total portfolio. I'm just trying to better manage the bleeding that I think is coming and trying to keep from taking a 40%+ hit like I did in the early 2000s and 2008-2011. Right now my total portfolio is down about 15% from it's peak earlier in the year.

I totally believe in long-term holding for the most part, but what I'm seeing makes no sense and this is a unique situation we're in right now. Am I off my rocker?
__________________
The forest was shrinking, but the Trees kept voting for the Axe, for the Axe was clever and convinced the Trees that because his handle was made of wood, he was one of them.

Last edited by XutvJet; 05-08-2020 at 02:32 PM..
Appreciate 2