Expecting "Santa Claus Rally " in 2018 , No ?

Christmas is just around the corner and some of us may be busy doing the Christmas Sales shopping to buy a gift or present for your loved one and some may be "worry ", looking on the screen seeing DJ dropped by few hundred points each day.

Yes, guess there will be no so-called "Santa Claus Rally" this year as the market expected to be in a volatile mood and swing viciously.

Santa Claus Rally ( from Investopedia.com)

More than half of S&P 500 stocks are now in a bear market ( from MarketWatch.com)

Although the US market has corrected by more than -12% from the peak in early 2018 but is still far from long term mean level and not to mentioned about crisis level.

My last update of world market index regression line as below :

Stock Market Crash: DJ just fell more than 1000 points!!

While S&P500 had dropped below +1SD but the DJ and Nasdaq still hovering around +1SD which I think still have much more room to move in downward trend if the current pessimistic about market continues.

Now, how about the Asia Market? 

Emerging Markets Extend Slump as Resurgent Dollar Triggers Capital Flight ( from Thestreet.com)

Emerging market like Indonesia / Turkey / South Africa/ Argentina been affected by this so-called " capital flight " in view of the stronger dollar and rising interest rate and also concern about their countries macro situation like debts and currency devaluation. 

As such, most of the major Asian stocks market also being affected by these negative sentiments, especially China and HKG market which was the most affected and impacted by the current trade war issue.

SPDR China ETF ( -27% ) , HSI ( -20% ) , Nikkei ( -20% ) , STI ( -16% ) from the peak in 2018.

** all moving below the long term mean level except Nikkei

How about deploying your "war-chest "?

Patience Is Your Biggest Investment Asset

With long term mean at the above level as compared to regression chart which I have plotted in early 2018, some value may start to appear and I talked about not deploying my "war-chest" in Jul 2018, except doing some "portfolio rebalancing" after selling my M1 and First Reits.

As above mentioned, one of the keys to successful investing is the "patience " and of course the others will be "TIME " in waiting and letting your dividend & investment to do the magic of compounding.

Patience & Discipline are important in how and when to deploy your war-chest, you may not want to end up with the situation that you are running out of investment fund during the crisis. Of course, nobody knows when will be the bottom and low could be lower, but at least one would have some fund to deploy when the market really hit -2SD (a golden opportunity to accumulate stocks if you still have fund to invest ) which is exceptionally rare and most of the time-triggered by a "black swan" event.

I will start to deploy some of my war chests if market drop below 2900 level ( which is around -20% from the last peak)....and continue to buy when index reach 2600 (-1SD ) and 2320 (-2SD).

How about you? any plan on how to stage and deploy your war-chest in current market condition?

Cheers !!

"Christmas is about spending time with family and friends. It’s about creating happy memories that will last a lifetime. Merry Christmas to all of you and your family! "