Anxiety? Yes. Panic? No.
As the S&P 500 plunged Monday, calm reigned on the online forum of the Bogleheads, an investing group inspired by the late Vanguard Group founder Jack Bogle and famed for its cool-headed, long-term attitude toward passive index investing.
“Feeling awesome! My annual bonus hits this week and goes directly into my 401k,” one contributor said in a post.
Bogleheads are notoriously blase about market volatility, but a wider range of investors also seem to be carrying on, if not exactly keeping calm, and maintaining portfolio allocations. Advisers say that clients in passive investments, such as those invested with robo-advisers, are nervous but aren’t abandoning index funds and that some see potential bargains in the carnage.
Charlotte Ransom, chief executive officer of London-based Netwealth Investments Ltd., sees a change in mood among clients sitting on cash.
“They are starting to invest at a higher level over the last few trading days,” she said. Netwealth uses index funds and investment professionals to manage money for clients.
Stocks tumbled more than 7% as U.S. markets opened Monday, the biggest intraday drop in a decade for the S&P 500, fueled by a collapse in oil prices and fears that the spreading coronavirus will cripple economies worldwide. Equities are poised to rebound Tuesday after President Trump said he plans “very dramatic” actions to support the economy.
At U.S. robo-adviser Wealthfront, clients have been moving money to high-interest cash accounts from investment accounts, a spokeswoman said in an email. Rival Betterment said it hasn’t seen an increase in customer inquiries or withdrawals.
The whipsawing in markets is a big test for robo-advisers that use algorithms to adjust portfolios to market conditions. Nutmeg, a U.K. retail investment firm that only uses exchange-traded funds, said 96% of its clients had taken no action in changing their portfolios during the past two weeks, and less than 0.1% initiated withdrawals.
This market sell-off is different from the 2008 financial crisis, said Ben Kumar, an investment strategist at Seven Investment Management in London. Clients, many of them middle-class, have been calling with anxious questions, he said.