Who is selling into this down market?

This question may be quite naïve, but here I go.

As a long term investor, the last thing I would do under ordinary circumstances, would be to sell into a down market. Yet, we have all watched this market sink day over day for a while now. So, my question is: Who is doing all this selling that is driving stocks down further at a time when the markets are way off their recent highs?

I think part of seeing the market drop that is so very hard is trying to understand the thinking behind the sellers’ actions. And…for all that large volume of money that is being generated by this selling, where is it going?

I feel that if I understood who was doing all this selling and why, it would be less unsettling to watch it happen.

Stocks are priced on expectations. The long-term expectations aren’t good. Hence, the selling by them who want to avoid even greater losses.

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As a long term investor, the last thing I would do under ordinary circumstances, would be to sell into a down market. Yet, we have all watched this market sink day over day for a while now. So, my question is: Who is doing all this selling that is driving stocks down further at a time when the markets are way off their recent highs?

I think part of seeing the market drop that is so very hard is trying to understand the thinking behind the sellers’ actions. And…for all that large volume of money that is being generated by this selling, where is it going?

I feel that if I understood who was doing all this selling and why, it would be less unsettling to watch it happen.

Managers of pension plans will need to sell assets to satisfy their commitments to pay those receiving pensions. Also, managers of mutual funds to pay the nervous nellies that want to move their investment to cash due to the crises in Ukraine.

On a more personal note, the investment managers of my managed, traditional IRA accounts have been selling assets to satisfy my 2022 RMD requirements and to rebalance the invested assets in the accounts. While a few assets were sold at a loss, the majority of the assets were sold at a gain this year. Many of the lots sold this year have been held for over 10 years.

The old saw is that fear and greed drive the market.

Fear is that things will get worse before they get better. Falling interest rates suggest people are selling stocks and buying treasury bonds for safety. And these people sell a broad range of stocks regardless of quality.

It can be a good time to buy if you spot the bottom correctly.

Tetter Totter to help protect your ASSets for positive CASH FLOW at all times. You could care less what the market is doing.

Notice the Pied Pipers aren’t around to help the HODlers (hang on for dear life)in their plight.

https://discussion.fool.com/tyme-has-come-today-in-beating-the-m…

Something to ponder,

Quillnpenn -

As a Professional Swing Trader, I use Stockcharts using Daily-OHLC Bars, TradersPro, Barcharts for all my stock ETF selections. Buy at the low and sell at the high.

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“Tetter Totter to help protect your ASSets for positive CASH FLOW at all times. You could care less what the market is doing.”.

Actually, Quill. I’d disagree. Choppy markets, and especially uncertin markets --like present-- are hard to deal with.

Second, by ‘Tetter Totter’, you mean trading ‘long or short’ (aka, Stop and Reverse). That just isn’t within the temperament of most ‘investors’, nor even many ‘traders’, nor --it should be pointed out and admitted to-- is it something you do with the majority of your holdings, especially not with your divvie program.

Just saying. And that said, ways to deal with down markets could be mentioned, such as going long what benefits when markets are under stress. Right now, that’s energy, ag, and PMs, all of which should have been averaged into months ago, when it became obvious that troubles lay ahead, but prices were still cheap. Or else --even now-- buying stuff that has a fixed redemption price, such as pfds.

Guessing where “the bottom” might be is a fool’s errand (lower case). But classic, Ben Graham-stle value investors are seeing discounts created that they could begin nibbling on. But let me make a guess, anyway. The Lefists aren’t going to let “the market” crash, because they know they’ll be voted out in the mid-terms. However, keeping the Ponzi scheme going might be beyond their means, espcially as the covid narrative unravels, inflation keeps climbing, and Russia provides details of the US bio-weapons labs it’s finding, whose exsitence Tucker documented last night.

Arindam

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Hi, rallen1947.

I’ll add that some of it is computer-driven. A lot of institutional investing is defensive and brokers use accounts with pre-set triggers that unload tons of shares automatically. It’s like a snowball rolling downhill.

Fuskie
Who thinks these groups should be doing the exact opposite, using a down market as an opportunity to go on offense, but as he is repeatedly reminded by his investment club investment committee, when he’s investing for himself, he’s the only one he has to answer to, but when he’s managing millions in assets for other people, there are suddenly a lot more stakeholders second guessing your decisions…


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