Making Sense of a Wacky Stock Market 

Yesterday (September 13), the Dow Jones Industrial Average opened up about 375 points and closed down 1276 points or a loss for the day of 3.9%. The S&P 500 index was down 4.3%, and NASDAQ down 5.2%. These are big losses, yet all three indexes are up for the prior three-month period.

Stock prices go up and down, and this is a continuous situation. Stock prices never stay the same, yet it seems to be big news when there are significant drops regardless of their significance to past increases.

Next Thursday, September 22 at noon I will be presenting my views about what’s going on with the stock market. This will include how to react to the “professional” advice about what to do, whether investing in index funds is the right thing for you, alternatives to the stock market and whether nontraditional types of investments should be considered, a 10-year and 20-year comparison of the stock market and bank certificates of deposits, four “guarantees” of what will happen in the future, and some other information you should be aware of with your investments that I do not think you will hear anywhere else. 

I will also discuss the differences in the three major indexes and which ones are more likely to go up or down the most and the risk profiles of each index. A PDF of my PowerPoint slides will be provided to all registered attendees.

The program is part of the Take a Business Break series I have been presenting for the East Brunswick Public Library since COVID started and is co-sponsored by Withum and is free. It will be on Zoom, and you must register in advance.

For those that do not know me, I am an emeritus partner at WithumSmith+Brown, PC, one of Accounting Today’s 100 Most Influential People, the author of 30 books and adjunct professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University. I am also accredited by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants as a personal financial specialist (CPA/PFS).

I look forward to “seeing” you next Thursday.