Keep Calm and Carry On: Brexit

It's Time in Market not Market Timing that Builds Wealth

     I've seen it written many different ways but today especially I think it is important for people to think of investing in terms of time in the market. I personally believed that Brexit was going to be voted down. Had I tried to time the market I would stand to have been down even farther than I am with today's substantial market drop. Even if I did have it correct I could have made some quick money surely but often the market is not as clear cut when trying to time the ups and downs so chances are that I'd end up losing at one point or another.

Staying the Course

     Yes, my portfolio is down, as is most people's but the underlying strength of my strategy still remains. I will continue to invest where I have been investing, namely Index Funds. I will also continue to sell options once I am able to. I may be locked into [SPY] for a while but I am content to harvest dividends and watch until the market comes back. The bottom line is that main street investors should see this for what it is: a market overreacting. Today's economies are exactly the same as yesterday's were. Britain's exit from the EU will take years to complete. The news is full of doom and gloom but since I don't trade on timing the market, I'm not at all worried. I'll stay the course and in the end, come out the winner.


Disclaimer: People do make money on market timing however statistically you are more likely to come out ahead by simple index fund investing (tons of reading you can do on the subject, I won't link here). I did expect Brexit to fail so I stayed in the S&P 500 but I'm not worried now that it went the other way. I lost nothing but value and I'm 100% sure that it will recover. Had I been thinking Brexit would fail I may have purchased some gold through [GLD]. I will still Sell Options on my S&P 500 holdings in the mean time, they just won't net as much premium. My time horizon is out past 5 years so I have the time to wait.