If you were paying attention to the news yesterday, you probably saw that the stock market decided to take quite a dive. Most indicies slipped 2-4% in a single day. Normally, I wouldn’t mind so much, as it is all just a part of the current cycle, but it is quite irritating that this happened with just a few trading days left in the second quarter. Up until yesterday, Q2 was basically flat after seeing some decent gains earlier in the quarter. Now, with yesterday’s big drop and only a few days left to go before the quarter end, it will take a small miracle to end on a positive note.

This means that when our second quarter statements go out in a little over a week, most people invested in stocks are going to see another negative return. The general theme this year has been to educate people about the ups and downs of the market, and how regular investments every paycheck will help smooth out the volatility, but having three consecutive quarterly losses is going to make this a much harder sell.

Even though the losses may only be in the 1-3% range for the quarter, I’m worried that we’ll see a mass exodus of people moving into the fixed account as they grow tired of seeing losses, even if small. I guess it just means it will be another rough couple of weeks down at the office. Good thing there is a long weekend coming up with the 4th of July holiday!

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