”Come to the edge,” He said. They said, ”We are afraid.” ”Come to the edge,” He said. They came. He pushed them… and they flew.
Guillaume Apollinaire

The answer to that simple question is a resounding no; never give in to panic. Better yet, do not allow that foolish emotion to gain any traction. Once fear takes over, the game is over.

When the markets were crumbling last week, if you cleared your mind and paid close attention to the talking heads, you should have immediately felt like you were listening to a pre-recorded message. It was the same old twaddle minus the current date. Now that we have YouTube, you can revisit the broadcasts from the 2008 financial crisis, from the 2000 Internet top, etc., etc. In each instance, you will find that it’s the same rubbish is spun in a different way; this is recycling at its best. The emphasis is to focus on the fear and stress factor.

Let’s take a detached look at what is actually going on, and why these events are unfolding.

It’s more than obvious that the market is correcting; the more appropriate term would be letting out steam that was long overdue. Last week, was the worst week for equity markets since 2011; coincidentally, the markets have not experienced a significant pullback since 2011.

So what changed over the span of 1-2 weeks to warrant such negativity?  Very little actually