Don't get discouraged by the headlines...
The news is inundated with stories of trade wars, interest rate hikes, and US versus North Korea. Uncertainty abounds and the markets hate it. You shouldn't get caught up in all that. Don't let the headlines spook you into dumping stocks.
What if you had let the election uncertainty scare you out of the stock market in 2016? You would have missed out on a LOT of money. Today, selling equities because of the headlines, is still a bad idea for now. There is still plenty of room for growth ahead. And the reason for that is simpleclear...
Before we go any further, you need to take a look at the chart below. It shows the Nasdaq Composite Index for the past nine years...
Tell me, why are so many people worried? Where is the big crash? The chart goes from under 2,000 points to almost 8,000. That's not too shabby, right? You would think that a move like this would bring the masses salivating with it...
You would think that thousands of eager investors would "confuse genius with a bull market" and start heaping their money into stocks. You would think that we'd have a frenzy in the stock market by now similar to the bitcoin frenzy of 2017, right?
No. It hasn't occurred. This is probably the most distrusted bull market in history. Nobody is celebrating. Everyone is expecting it to end soon or tomorrow. And it could happen. But I don't think so...
This may blow your mind, but let me say it anyway. This is not what a significantly major market top feels like. I've been in the markets for awhile. I've listened to and read analysis from various professionals. I've seen a lot of major peaks in asset prices... And they all garner the same feeling. Investors get greedy for more and more. They throw caution to the wind, buying as much stock/securities/assets as they can with no worries.
We saw it with bitcoin in December. It seemed that everyone talking about bitcoin was sure we all should buy. And it seemed like every other crypto news headline described a new batch of "bitcoin millionaires." Investor excitement was so amazingly thick, it seemed that you could cut it with a knife.
It was the same scenario for real estate a dozen years ago. People were quitting their day jobs to flip houses. It was an era of easy money. And most people had a false sense of security that the housing market was a "sure thing."
The dot-com peak in 2000 was also similar. There were folks who started day trading and turned into millionaires. Businesses with no real plan to ever make money were starting IPO's... and sky-rocketing hundreds of percent in their first days of trading. It was nuts.
Those moments let you know what market tops feel like. It's electrifying. You can feel the charge in the air when everyone thinks they'll be the next one to get rich quick. We don't have that huge enthusiasm happening in the markets as of yet.
These days, folks are worried about trade wars. They are jittery about North Korea. They're not elated, concerning stocks... And that conveys that the market can still potentially move higher. So, keep your eyes and ears open. Stay alert.