Perhaps the situation is not as dire as they were when Thomas Paine penned those words in 1776.  However, with the U.S. stock market falling for eight of the past nine days and dropping 8% during the past week, these are certainly times which test our tolerance to look past the short term. After yesterday’s 5% drop in the S&P 500, the index is now down for the year, and phrases such as “market turmoil” and “global sell-off” are dominating the media outlets.  It is the skilled investor who can stick to her long-term plan in the face of short-term pain.

As a fellow investor, I understand the uncertainty you’re feeling.  We certainly don’t like to see our portfolios fall. We here at Cypress Wealth are paying close attention to the events that are causing a stock market sell-off unseen since the financial crisis of 2008.

Yet our advice to you is: take a deep breath, stay calm, and keep your emotions in check. Restraint can be difficult, but successful investing requires it. In times like these it is important to keep our long-term focus and remember that we are investors and not speculators.  In my opinion, the recent and dramatic sell off is driven more by fear than any real data.  While none of us have a crystal ball and no one can predict the immediate future, there are plenty of reasons to look past the current conditions.  As our last earnings season showed us, most U.S. companies are sitting on solid books with large piles of cash.  The economy while not on fire, is showing slow and signs of growth and will muddle through over the next several months.

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