The fear that is driving this market down is from old investors with different investing goals (less risk-averse, retiring sooner, and have less time than you have in the market), traders, and anyone that is over-leveraged (getting margin called and being forced to sell).
I'd imagine that many of the investors on this subreddit are young people just starting out. These are scary times. Many people are pushing different agendas out on where they believe this market is going and it can be very confusing. War, inflation, and slower growth with decompressing multiples are all real concerns, I do not want to discredit them by saying all this. My point is that you as a young investor have more TIME than all the people I just listed above for this to work itself out. History has shown that we've gotten through many tough times and I have no doubt that we will come out of this.
I'm not making this post to say you should buy or sell at these levels either… The last thing I want to do is make this a pump/dump piece about any particular stock.
Moving forward, just make sure you pace your buys for these types of risks. No overleveraging, no YOLO's, none of that. I posted this here for a reason, not WSB. The perspective you need to have is that this time is actually more of a GIFT than the months before for a young long-term investor. I bet there will be more downside to come don't get me wrong, but at the same time no one is gonna be able to call the bottom of this correction. Your upside on a long-term time horizon hasn't looked this good in many sectors in years, that's a fact.
If you've gotten yourself in a pickle and need to sell your positions at a loss, just know that there are tax write offs and life will go on (please educate yourselves on this process so you do it correctly). You have lots of time to learn from your mistakes. It'll make you a better investor. So many have made mistakes, we are human. Just remember this feeling and let it help guide you to make smarter investing decisions down the road.
And lastly, don't quit. If you've been burned badly and leave the market forever, that would be the biggest mistake you could make.
I'm ready for the “bottom is in” comments to start rolling in after this sympathy TED talk piece I just put out here (hahahahaha). Hang in there guys.
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