Financial Advisors Try to Project Calm During Market Plunges

What do financial advisors tell their clients when markets plunge? 

Five FAs below told etf.com that they tried to provide context and a sense of calm, particularly for investors worried that they are losing sizable pieces of their life savings. 

“If we go back 20 years and look at the seven best days for stocks, six of them occurred after the worst six days,” said Jason Weckerly, owner of Montgomery Wealth Management in Doylestown, Pa.

Stocks and other risk-on assets worldwide tumbled on Monday after a soft U.S. jobs report last week re-ignited concerns that the economy was headed for a steep recession. Japan's Nikkei Index started the day by dropping more than 12%, its largest decline since 1987. The S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 3% and 3.4%, respectively. Leading index funds, SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) and the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ) tumbled by 4% and over 5.5%, respectively. 

Read More: Monday’s Stock Market Plunge Was Nothing

Patrick Huey, owner of Victory Independent Planning in Camas, Wash., put the burst of market volatility into context.

“At the end of June, there had been just 10 days with market moves greater than 1% this year,” he said. “The average year since 1980 has had 64 such moves.”

Alvin Carlos, managing partner at District Capital Management in Washington, D.C., asked his clients to recall the start of Covid in 2020.  “The markets dropped by 30%, but fully recovered in several months,” he said. “Go live your life and let us worry about the financial markets.”

Advising Clients Through Market Mayhem

In addition to portfolio management, tax and estate planning, and general life coaching, advisors use volatile periods to present a sense of calm to clients.

“I am not a great flyer, but when a pilot comes on in a completely calm voice during the bumpy flight, it helps me because I know the pilot is trained and, more importantly, has seen this many times before,” said Karen Ogden, partner at Envest Asset Management in Ridgefield, Conn.

“Those of us who read about markets constantly and are students of market history and see the charts and internalize them, know that some sort of panic happens every year,” she added. “It is to be expected, and it is invariably the worst time to take action, unless possibly you have some cash on the sidelines to put to work during a big down day.”

Noah Damsky, managing partner at Marina Wealth Advisors in Los Angeles, takes the behavioral psychologist role to an even deeper level by embracing the nervousness of clients when markets get choppy.

“I feel the opposite of how my clients feel,” he said. “Their nervousness makes me breathe a sigh of relief, because if they were bullish and asking to buy crypto and NFTs, that would make me nervous.”

Damsky explains to clients that stock market volatility reflects investor anxiety, and thus, helps justify prices at any given moment.

“This seems to click with most people because it's intuitive and easy to understand,” he said. “I think it makes them feel better when they have someone in their corner who is overseeing their wealth in a way that doesn't change with their yo-yo of emotions.”