Tumbling

Maybe the only thing more stressful than watching Olympics gymnastics is watching athletes’ families watching Olympics gymnastics. And about the only thing more stressful than watching athlete’s families watching the Olympics gymnastics is watching all of us watching our investment portfolios today. After rising to new heights, our portfolios just got the twisties mid-air and now we’re all holding our breath hoping the market can stick a soft landing. Many investors were forced to sit on their hands (or cover their eyes) during the tumbling exercise as Schwab, Fidelity, other online trading brokerages appeared to go dark during the market sell-off. The only thing moving faster than panicked trades are self-certain think-pieces assuredly explaining exactly what’s happening. But short term market movements are hard to explain and even harder to predict. I’m just glad I recently rebalanced my portfolio by shifting money out of stocks and bonds and into Xanax. Here’s the latest from CNN: Global stock markets plunge. (Forgive any typos today, it’s difficult for me to write from the fetal position.)