So, here we are — market crash chaos again, huh? Yeah, it feels like déjà vu all over. Investors are probably scratching their heads and biting their nails, thinking, “Where do we go from here?” and “When can I finally breathe again?” It’s like watching a soap opera but with money.
History is our old, wise friend here. It likes to repeat itself, just in different outfits. Crashes are like horror movie sequels that just keep coming back, sometimes scarier, sometimes not.
Ah, the COVID-19 crash in 2020. Blink, and boom — S&P 500 tanked 13.8% in like, two days. Thanks, pandemic. The world paused, and the economy went “Haha, nope.” Markets do love their drama. The bottom? March 23. Just over a month — the market hit the floor like it was breakdancing and then sprung back up. And the Fed? Oh, they swooped in, slashing rates to near nothing and buying all the things. It was like watching a magician in action, pulling markets out of a hat. By mid-August, it was like COVID who? Stocks were back up.
And let’s not forget the 2008 financial rollercoaster, right? Lehman Brothers done goofed, and the S&P dropped faster than my Monday morning motivation. Sept. 29, blah blah, it was carnage. The market hit rock bottom by March 2009. And again, the Fed came in like a superhero, waving its stimulus wand, injecting cash and hope. Stocks were dirt cheap, like a clearance sale nobody wanted to go to. But recovery? Yeah, took its sweet time — five long years.
Oh, Black Monday, 1987. Good times, not really. The Dow skydove—22.6% in one day, because why ease into panic, you know? Computer-based trading did its thing, selling like nobody’s business. The Fed was back at it, sprinkling liquidity like salt on fries. It took its time creeping back up, two years to be precise, for the Dow to recover, all while investors clutched their pearls.
And who could forget the legendary, almost mythic, 1929 crash? The Dow laughed in the face of stability, diving 23% in two days. Like, wow. That crash kickstarted the Great Depression, which was about as fun as a root canal. It dragged on, stocks kept hurting, and 25 years later they were finally okay-ish.
So, what’s all this historical mumbo jumbo saying about our current crash festival? Basically, chill out, don’t freak — yet. Historically, crashes like to bottom out in a few months. It’s like a timeout, but with more existential dread and fewer juice boxes.
The whole deal this time is tariffs — messy, unpredictable tariffs. And who knows what politicians will do? Will they drop tariffs or double down? Your guess is as good as a coin flip.
Investors, maybe it’s time to play the waiting game. The ol’ buy-the-dip strategy? Yeah, still a thing. We can’t time the market’s tantrum fits, but buying bits here and there might give us a nice reward when all this volatility settles down.
And ETFs. They’re like comforting warm soup. Something like the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF — plop in a lil’ cash every couple weeks, sit back, and wait. Dollar-cost averaging might just be your friend.
Remember, best markets recover from their lows with a bang, so stay nimble, stay cautious, but don’t miss that rocket when it takes off again.
