Oakland, CA | East Bay; Market Volatility During the Coronavirus Pandemic

Hi, I’m Erik Wolfers. I’m the managing member of First and Main Financial. We do wealth management and comprehensive financial planning engagements for our clients. We’ve been doing it since 2001.

Today I’m talking about the stock market for a minute. We have a lot of clients contacting us, believing that the stock market is going to go back down again.

Through this Covid-19 pandemic, the stock market dropped at the most rapid rate ever in the history of the stock market and then came back significantly—and many people don’t believe it’s possible for it to trade where it is given the way the world looks right now. But the stock market is rational. Mostly it does have a tendency to trade at extremes in euphoria or in times of panic. But the people that are participating, millions of people with trillions of dollars, are behaving rationally. They wouldn’t be putting more money into the stock market if they didn’t think the situation was going to improve.

So, the stock market can’t be wrong. It does get expensive at times or very cheap at times at the extremes, but it’s taking in all the information available at this time and it’s price where it is. And if the situation continues as it has, it’s probably or maybe going to slide higher as it has been, once it’s sort of reach the new equilibrium point or base point; and if things turn out to be much worse than anyone could have imagined, then it’ll go lower.

But it also could jump higher on positive news, like for treatments for Coronavirus or a vaccine coming out sooner rather than later. So, you can’t really argue with the stock market, you can’t guess, you can’t predict the future, so we’re invested for the long-term.

If you are looking for some financial guidance; whether for a one time financial plan or continuing advice on your investments, we invite you to meet with a First & Main Financial planner for a free consultation. We would be more than happy to sit down with you, assess your situation and review our services to help navigate your financial future.