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by IvyMike 2289 days ago
They call this "trying to catch a falling knife". Good luck.
3 comments

You don't buy all at once, though - you can "dollar cost average" into the market by buying index funds in small chunks when there are big dips, and stop buying when it stops falling.

You won't predict the bottom, and you might not get all of your money in in time, but you'll still wind up ahead when the markets recover.

And they will recover, unless we somehow get to a point where the entire monetary system collapses. The only question is whether it will take a few weeks, months, years, or decades.

Pick your starting point depending on how long you can wait. Buying early makes you less likely to miss the dip, but it might take longer to start seeing green numbers. Buying late means that you stand to gain more in the short term, but you might not get all of your money in in time.

Personally, I think we're still straddling the "early" line around now, but your guess is as good as mine. This is what they call a 'roller coaster' :)

Without a doubt, you’re better off buying now than when markets were 50% higher a few months ago.
It's a fire sale though. So you can also protect your capital as best you can and get in there. Establish a rule to sell the stock if it falls another N%, and jump on the stock sale. HN is generally super risk-averse but there are ways to moderate risk with finer-grained control than "don't try to catch a falling knife."