title: Market has a Downturn / Current Crisis / Crash / Politics description: [AFW S.12.11] Securities Objection #11 published: true date: 2026-06-30T08:10:33.391Z tags: editor: markdown dateCreated: 2021-09-02T21:54:36.264Z
What about the Current Crisis?¶
Watch AF MKOM 1655 - Handling The Market (tariffs) VIDEO
Read Nick's This Time Isn’t Different - #10 - Part 1.9 - Companies Are Not Stocks PDF
Read Nick's This Time Isn’t Different - #12 - Part 1.11 - The Quagmire of Current Events PDF
Read Nick's This Time Isn’t Different - #13 - Part 1.12 - What Superior Companies Actuall Do In A Crisis PDF
Read Nick's This Time Isn’t Different - #14 - Part 1.13 - Talk Less About Current Events - Starting Now. PDF
Read Nick's This Time Isn’t Different - #24 - Part 2.6 - The Long-Term Regret Issue: Even Scarier Than It First Appears PDF
Read Nick's NMS 34 - This too shall pass - an interim bulletin PDF
Read Nick's NMS 50 - Burgeoning national debt? PDF
Read Nick's NMS 51 - Dollar losses its status? PDF
Read Nick's Around the Year, September 24 - Always Be Listening For The Big Fear PDF
Read Nick's This Time Isn’t Different - Part 1.8 - This Time Isn't Different PDF
“About every ten years, we have the biggest crisis in fifty years.” ―Paul Volcker
“When you sell in desperation, you always sell cheap.” ―Peter Lynch
“I am not running your portfolio off current events.” ―Michael Thomas
“The market will go up and it will go down, but not necessarily in that order.” ―J. P. Morgan
“Owners of sound securities should never panic.” ―J. Paul Getty
Merryle Rukheyser, Louis Rukheyser's father, encountered Bernard Baruch on the street when the stock market crashed in 1929.
'This is a terrible day in the stock market,' said Mr. Rukheyser.
'Not for buyers,' answered Mr. Baruch.
Talking Points / Scripts¶
“The more you talk about the economy and the markets on the way up, the more likely your clients will want to inquire sharply about them on the way down.
“The more the tenor of your everyday communication has to do with 'the news', the sooner you're going to get those 'What's your opinion of this situation?' calls.” ―Nick Murray
These scripts are adopted from Nick Murray's Interactive Newsletter, September 2011. PDF
Thank you for your question/email/letter/call. Please know that I deeply empathize with you and my other clients concerns during these difficult times.
I am not a market timer or an economist therefore I can't respond directly to (whatever-crisis). I don't know how or when the crisis will end and neither does anyone else.
Your portfolio is based on your long term goals rather than a market outlook. It's driven by historical returns matched with your investment time horizon. I only recommend changes when your goals have changed and yours have not changed.
Markets may go down but they don't stay down. Even at today's levels it is up 10 times in the last 30 years. Almost every year experiences significant declines and those of this summer are in the range of normal.
I would be happy to discuss this further, just remember that your portfolio is well suited to your long term goals. It is natural to worry about current headlines but hopefully you feel like I do that patience and discipline will prevail.
10% Drop Triggers Special Email¶
Read Nick's NMS 32 - Standard email for entering a market correction PDF
Read Nick's NMS 33 - Standard email for entering a bear market PDF
“Much of investing is avoiding FOMO buying and panic selling.” ―Naval Ravikant
Shares not Dollars¶
If you've been in the securities business for a while, you can anticipate what will happen. If the market's going up like crazy, your clients are happy as a bug in a rug. Right? But if the market drops, they're going to call you. You've probably experienced it before. Through the years, we've come up with a powerful approach for overcoming market objections. It consists of focusing on shares not dollars. Use this conversation at the point of sale, and later when experiencing market downturns.
The Script¶
Watch Market has a downturn role-play by Andreas Reiter VIDEO
Advisor John, I want you to understand that the market goes up, and the market goes down. You understand that when the market goes down, that's the best time to buy. That's why we talked about dollar cost averaging. When did we put your retirement plantogether.. was that for short-term, or long-term?
Let the client answer. Then, right away you've got to remind them that the plan was to accumulate shares in a mutual fund. Not to accumulate money per se, but shares.
One of the things people don't understand is that, in accumulating long-term wealth in a mutual fund, what you really want to do is accumulate shares of the mutual fund. Think of them as pieces of income-producing property. If you went out and you bought apartments or some other kind of real estate, you would take that money and try to help it grow so you could buy another one, and as it grew it would produce income for you. That's the way a mutual find works. Your goal is to accumulate shares so that later on when you are in your income phase, instead of your growth phase, you can have enough shares to generated the income you need. So it makes sense that the more shares you accumulate the better of you'll be long-term, doesn't it?
Has the share price changed of your shares?
Prospect: Yes, I remember now. I understand what you're saying.
Advisor So, have you really lost money?
Prospect: Well, yeah, they're worth less.
Advisor Well, let me ask you this: have you lost any shares?
Prospect: No, I haven't lost any shares.
Advisor You haven't lost any shares because you haven't sold any shares, right? You're concerned because the shares are priced differently.
Prospect: Yeah, they sure are, they're down to (such and such).
Advisor So, the share prices have changed, and that's why you're calling me.
Prospect: No, I'm calling you because the market's down.
Advisor But the share prices are what we're concerned about, right? So, If you were willing to pay $12 to $16 a share why not $11?
Once you get to this point, your client should totally understand why there's no reason to panic. In fact, there's an opportunity in market fluctuations, if you focus on the importance of purchasing shares for long-term growth, and not short-term gain.
I Want to Liquidate My Account¶
Read Nick's NMS 55 - Liquidate my account PDF
-from NMI February 2022.
What the Experts Say about a Crisis¶
“Every decade or so, dark clouds will fill the economic skies, and they will briefly rain gold.” ―Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway's 2016's annual report."
“Bad news is an investor's best friend and if you're not ready for stocks to drop by 50%, you shouldn't be investing.” ―Warren Buffett
“Every crisis has appeared to be totally unprecedented as we were going through it. Just as this one does. This time is no different.” ―Nick Murray
“Though it’s tempting to sell when the market begins to drop, giving in to your fear is not a sound strategy. You cannot possibly succeed that way.” ―Ray Dalio
“Remember, the stock price only matters when you buy and when you sell.” ―Joyce Gordon, a Equity Portfolio Manager with Capital Group / American Funds (for 43 years).
“Volatility isn't risk, and temporary decline isn't permanent loss. "Long-term the market is completely predictable. Short-term it is utterly unpredictable.
I know two things: 1. The market goes up. 2. The market goes down.
I don't know *when they happen, nor how long they last (and I don't care).”* -Nick Murray
“Permanent loss of capital in equities has no historical precedent. Permanent loss in a well-diversified equity portfolio can only be triggered by an investor's irrational decision to sell in a decline.” ―Nick Murray
“The only way you can lose money is to mistake a temporary decline for a permanent loss.” ―Nick Murray
Read Nick's Nick Murray - On Politics (Every Four Years, This Time It's Different) PDF
Read Nick's ATY 129 May 09 - Our Standard Bear-Market Statement PDF
Read Nick's ATY 285 October 12 - When The Bear Strikes PDF
Read Nick's NMS 53 - If there is a correction, shouldn't I get out of the market? PDF
Read Nick's NMS 54 - The economic crisis bear market is upon us; we have already lost x% of our capital, we must get it now PDF
"When the market has a downturn there are only three actions you can take regarding your investments…
1. Sell your shares at a loss. 2. Do nothing. 3. Buy more shares at a discount.
Only two of the three are acceptable answers, and one is the superior answer.
Take a wild guess what the smart money does?" -Michael Thomas
“You make most of your money in a bear market, you just don’t know it at the time.” -Shelby Cullom Davis
“Don't watch the market closely. Buy and hold is the best strategy. The money is made in investments by investing, and by owning good companies for long periods of time.” -Warren Buffett
“Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.” -Warren Buffett
“If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too.” -Rudyard Kipling
Warren Buffett sugessts you read this poem when the market is tanking.
On October 19, 1987, Black Monday, the S&P 500 Index dropped 23%. Warren Buffet's holdings in Berkshire Hathaway plunged more than $300 million dollars.
Had he been unnerved and sold, he would have "lost" $300 million.
However, he didn’t sell and the value of his shares by February 2001 (14 years later) were worth over 22 times more than they were on Black Monday ($6.6 billion).
Government & Politics¶
“You must tune this stuff out, it doesn't matter. The economy and government are uncorrelated to the market. Don't make investment policy out of your distaste for the government.” -Nick Murray
“If you mix politics with your investment decisions, you're making a big mistake.” ―Warren Buffett
“If Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan were to whisper to me what his monetary policy was going to be over the next two years, it wouldn’t change one thing I do.” ―Warren Buffett (1994)
“We will continue to ignore political and economic forecasts, which are an expensive distraction for many investors and businessmen.” ―Warren Buffett
“No financial, fiscal, monetary, economic or political crisis ever in the history of the world has been capable of inflicting a permanent loss on equity values.” ―Nick Murray