I was born in 1998.
My generation hasn’t experienced a serious market drawdown in our adult lifetime. Every asset class has gone up consistently, fueled by massive central bank stimulus quantitative easing (QE) that began in 2008.
I can’t help but wonder how brutal the next real crash might be, especially considering that most of us born around the same time and now working in finance with real responsibilities have never lived through one. We just dont know what real f*cking market fear is.
The new “truth” seems to be that a 10% annual return in the stock market is guaranteed, and that the risk free rate despite now yielding about the same as the S&P 500 earnings yield is for fools.
I feel like freaking Gandalf, sitting in Minas Tirith, reading ancient scrolls about the ring that once existed, that no one believes could return. Except in this case, it’s “stocks can actually fall for long periods”.
There was a time when stocks were considered risky, and people understood that. Now I hear friends talk about mutual funds like they’re savings accounts: “10% returns, locked in.” And since we’ve never seen anything close to a long lasting market drawdown with real fear, I can’t even imagine how badly people will panic. Just a few weeks ago, people were already calling for the Fed to step in when the S&P was still at 5000.
God, when I look at my friends and our generation, I can’t stand that the only thing left is to hope we actually get a lesson. There’s an ATH of fools running around thinking they’re f*cking George Soros on Main Street. We need a 1929 event, and we need it now. I don’t care if I have to live in a tent