How to Handle a Volatile Market

For your average investor, knowing what to do when the stock market swings up or down can be a big challenge, but watching this informative installment of Simple Solutions will help you act (or not act) with confidence.  Jeremy Glaser gets a slew of smart, level-headed investment strategies from Christine Benz, Direct of Personal Finance for Morningstar.  Benz talks frankly about the perils of reactionary investing as illustrated in a recent Fidelity Investments study, and gives you smart steps for taking action that will minimize your risk.  Refraining from big, emotional decisions, she advises, and taking a more gradual ‘”chicken” approach instead can help to offset both potential long-term losses and the anxiety triggered by a volatile market.  There’s also reasonable advice for timing, tax benefits (or costs), rebalancing, and what you should think about before you sell a stock.  Benz also weighs in on “inverse” financial products, for whom they’re designed, and whether they have any benefit at all versus a more traditional investment strategy.