HACKER Q&A
📣 BossingAround

Is this a good time to buy stock?


I've long been pondering and putting off buying stock. With the fears of Coronavirus, it seems the stock market is down. Is this a good time to buy stock?

Any favorites you'd recommend?


  👤 anonu Accepted Answer ✓
Never catch a falling knife.

Timing the market is a futile game. Take the Buffet approach... Buy because you like the fundamentals and hold forever.


👤 daleholborow
All in on Tesla, elon's gonna invent a cure any day now surely!

Seriously, the market is now back to where it was six months ago. Consider what that says about people trying you to tell you to "buy the dip now that things are cheap". You've got two choices... Buy index funds slowly and consistently regardless of the news, or learn to pick decently priced individual stocks based on your own fundamental analysis.

Ignore anyone who tells you to use technical analysis, they're an idiot, and if you venture into reddit/wallstreetbets, you are screwed.

Good luck.


👤 Ghjklov
This isn't a serious reply to bash anyone here but it makes me sad that after a crisis like this hits and many people die because they weren't prepared or they used all of their money as a result of the crisis, to think that a relative handful of people who have the capital to freely invest money into stocks of wealthy companies so that they can profit off them at a later point after the economy has recovered. It's always the same people isn't it? These opportunities don't come unless you've already got the money and education to make use of them. So what's the future look like? More of the same. Don't get me wrong though. It's the best thing to do if the opportunity is there for you.

I want to be wrong about this though. Maybe I'm seeing it from the wrong light. So if someone wants to tell me otherwise, feel free.


👤 jsight
The best time to buy an S&P 500 index fund was March 4, 1957. The second best time is tomorrow (markets are closed today, so you can't do it today).

👤 sloaken
Until the it peeks you have no idea of impact. Cash is king. Buy low.

👤 PaulHoule
It is a better time than two months ago.

My take is this: at the beginning of the Trump administration, P/E ratios were at the high range of "normal". There is another factor of four you could get in the "bubble" range but that is a special phenomenon that happens once a generation or so.

Today you always have people asking "is this a bubble?" because we remember the 1990s, but maybe by 2040 or so it something people might be ready to believe.

Under the Trump admin I think the stock market has gone up without visible means of support, but it has not gotten into the extreme bubble territory that we saw in the 1920s, 1960s and 1990s.

Thus now is certainly a chance to get in, but I can't be too excited about the market now.

I suggest you get a good ETF like QQQ.