Why would anyone sell right now with the markets so much down? Is it retail investors that are spooked? Is it retirees that are afraid of their 401(k)s shrinking even further. Is it institutional investors who think they can deploy the money better elsewhere?

I know I am down bigly on my IRA/401K and haven't even logged into my accounts to look. I know my Robinhood brokerage account is down 49% since last month, but I am not selling anything now.

I am genuinely curious about people that sell into a market that is down 30% from its high. What is their motivation?

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Posted by TigerintheNO

New Orleans

Member since Jan 2004

41187 posts

Posted on 3/18/20 at 12:28 pm to saintforlife1

lots of people aren't working and need cash

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Posted by canyon

Member since Dec 2003

18367 posts

Posted on 3/18/20 at 12:29 pm to saintforlife1

My exact question. Lots of auto sell triggers hitting?

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Posted by ldts

Member since Aug 2015

2677 posts

Posted on 3/18/20 at 12:31 pm to saintforlife1

Some are likely from selling to meet margin calls.

This post was edited on 3/18/20 at 12:32 pm

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Posted by boomtown143

Merica

Member since May 2019

6701 posts

Posted on 3/18/20 at 12:32 pm to saintforlife1

I have about 8k in retirement cash.

Set it up to buy S&P index ~1k a week until it's gone.
Going to put my 2020 6k contribution in soon. still haven't decided what I'm going to do with that.

We will come back. Patience !

This post was edited on 3/18/20 at 12:33 pm

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Posted by tirebiter

7K R&G chile land aka SF

Member since Oct 2006

9204 posts

Posted on 3/18/20 at 12:51 pm to saintforlife1

Would imagine forced selling out of packaged leveraged products has been happening. Wrote about UBS shutting down a 2x mortgage REIT ETN in another thread, sure events like this are bringing big negative action in that sector by force selling. Unit holders of MORL getting less than 40 cents on the $, original price was $25/unit, and traded over $30/unit at times. ETNs (exchange traded notes) are terrible products.

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