Tuesday, March 16, 2021 2:12 PM EDT
One year ago was a truly frightening day. Mid-March of 2020 was one of the scariest times I can remember, on a par with the depths of 2008 and the 1987 crash. The S&P 500 (SPX) and Dow Jones (INDU) each fell about 12% on March 16th, 2020. It was the worst fall in percentage terms since 1987, and the highly reported INDU fall was the largest ever in point terms. I would argue that the fears in 2020 may have actually been more visceral than those of the prior incidents. In those cases, people were concerned only about their finances and livelihoods, while in 2020 they were concerned about their actual well-being.
As in those early incidents, which would have been termed “The Panic of … (1987/2008/2020)” had they occurred 100 years earlier, there were real cracks in the market infrastructure that became exposed. In each of these cases, the cracks became fault lines, and those created real tremors in the system. Here are some of the lessons that we learned (and some that have already been forgotten):
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Trading on margin is only for sophisticated investors with high risk tolerance. You may lose more than your initial investment.
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Disclosure:
MARGIN TRADING
Trading on margin is only for sophisticated investors with high risk tolerance. You may lose more than your initial investment.
For additional information regarding margin loan rates, see ibkr.com/interest
FUTURES TRADING
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