What I plan to do as stock market is dropping

Dear Readers,

Thank you for coming here.

In this post, I would like to share with you what I plan to do now, as stock marketing is dropping like crazy.

Simply put, two things:
- Don't "Sell"
- Look for "Buy" opportunities


Don't "Sell"



I decide not to sell anything, because logically

1. I am young and have enough time to ride through the cycles.
2. I believe the market is unpredictable in the short term. The market could start to go higher from the next minute. I will never know
3. Luckily, I do not need the cash now

However, even though the reasoning is sound and you can convince yourself logically, how do you save yourself from the tempting thoughts or the "what-ifs"?

Let's be honest. It is very tempting to think or calculate how much gain you could have secured or how much loss you could have avoided if you sold earlier and it is even more so to think about whether you should sell now before it is too late.

I know it is hard to get rid of those thoughts or feelings, because I have been there before.

The way I do it now is to treat the "Dollar Cost Averaging" (DCA) scenario as the baseline and compare my current portfolio to that. If I have stick to the DCA method, how would my portfolio fare now and how is it compared to my current portfolio? This way, I focus almost always on whether I should buy, because "Selling" is not part of the DCA, at least not in the accumulating phase.


Look for "Buy" opportunities

In my earlier posts, I mentioned that I stopped putting money into stock market from Sept last year because I thought the price had become too high. And the drop is likely to provide opportunities to buy. The only problem is that I do not have a big enough war chest and I do not have my salary now.

However, I will utilize whatever I can spare and grab the opportunity. As a matter of fact, I already bought 5000 shares of ES3 last Friday.


In summary, if you are like me, a relatively young DIY ETF investor who cannot or does not want to spend a lot of time researching the market, I suggest you hold your portfolio and look for buy opportunities. The market drop only presents you with opportunities to lower the average cost of your portfolio, especially if you have your stable income.


Till next time!