It’s always different…every time. The set of factors are never the same. In fact, with the current pandemic scare, try to name the factors that are the same. What I think you’ll realize is that the  only similarity is the social context.

What never changes, however, is the pendulum that swings between fear and greed. Investors move between optimism and pessimism. The same things that would rattle investors when they’re pessimistic will barely affect them when they’re optimistic.  Similarly, things that would have optimistic investors pounding the BUY button will have little impact when they’re pessimistic.  And in what’s often a shoot-first-ask-questions-later environment, the same things might even have them hit SELL.

As the always-Trump camp (“this market’s going up as long as my boy’s in office”) found out, the market can get rocked on its heels seemingly outta nowhere. Market corrections C.A.N.N.O.T. be reliably timed, although they appear that way in hindsight.

If investors’ retirements get screwed up, it’s going to be because of their poor decisions; not because of Coronavirus.