When I was in elementary school we were taught STOP DROP and ROLL. This is the correct technique to use if you or your clothes catch on fire. The natural tendency is to panic and run around trying to escape the flames making things worse. It fans the flames causing them to burn faster and hotter. If you are ever on fire, you are supposed to; stop running, drop to the ground, and roll over and over to smother the flames. The purpose of the repetition is to make it an automatic response to replace the natural tendency to panic. Drilling this concept into our heads repeatedly worked in theory. Several decades later the STOP, DROP and Roll still rolls off my tongue. I say in theory, since I have never been accidently set on fire. There was one time, when making a fire prevention video, that I let them light my clothes on fire intentionally. But, that story will have to wait for another time. In reality, most people don’t even know someone who has been on fire that needed to stop, drop and roll. For those of you old enough, you may remember that, Richard Pryor had some experience with this. Panic is not a good option when you are on fire, when the market is dropping, or any other time. Yet with the recent economic events, and big swings in the stock market, many investors have reacted and initiated a panic strategy. Sell, sell more, and sell all. Selling everything, converting to cash, stuffing the cash in the mattress, and other actions they would never have considered doing six months ago. The unexpected severity of the economic storm has resulted in the market dropping nearly 50% from the last high in October of 2007. Thus, a panic sell off that only compounded the market drops. It is interesting that even those who intentionally took on higher levels of risk panicked with the big loss of value in the markets. Whether, or not, we are at the bottom of the market no one knows for sure. It is likely that we will continue to see some large ups and downs for several months before another bull market occurs. The equivalent of stop, drop and roll for investing is stop, drop and know.  Stop before you sell everything. Drop the fear and doomsday attitude prevalent in the media and misguided investors with short memories. Know what your investment strategy is, your time frame for needing the invested assets, and your risk tolerance. If they are the same as when the market was up, then don’t change them now. Remember stop, drop, and know. Panic is never a good investment option.

• Media Manipulation
• When Half Right is Wrong
• Restarts
• Objects Are Closer Than They Appear
• Do Your Home work first!