03/15/2022

Advice for Dealing With the Roller Coaster Stock Market This Year

Find out what’s behind the stock market's ups and downs

On June 16, 1884, the Switchback Railway debuted in New York City's Coney Island as America's first roller coaster. Quite possibly that afternoon, some 10 miles away on Wall Street, a quick-thinking broker coined the world's first roller coaster/stock market analogy. And we have clung to it ever since. We are all guilty of using it at some point or another (raises hand), but it remains one of the more relatable ways to describe the inevitable gyrations of the stock market.

Relatable, but imperfect.

For starters, a roller coaster can only take an incline for so long; eventually, the laws of physics kick in and it loses momentum. Those thrilling declines are necessary to keep the ride going. But over the past five years, despite the steep drawdown experienced during the onset of global economic COVID-19 lockdowns, it has felt like this roller coaster has done nothing but go up. Particularly here in the U.S., where the S & P 500 has experienced double digit gains in four out of the past five calendar years, exceeding 20 percent in three of those years.

Please select this link to read the complete article from ASAE's Center for Association Leadership.