Stock market investments: stick or bust?
When every day brings further fluctuations in the financial markets, it can be hard for investors to decide whether to up sticks and sell their shares or to hold firm and wait for more stable times.
Some of the key factors to be considered when making such a decision include how long individuals want to invest their money for and what their attitude to risk is.
Those who are investing for the long term, say 10 years or more, should see the markets recover and the price of their shares bounce back. Indeed, looking back in ten years time, these fluctuations are likely to be seen as a glitch rather than a major breakdown. However, the problems arise for investors who are looking to leave the market in the short term – which is where their attitude to risk comes into play.
More cautious investors may want to sell their shares in favour of cash savings, while risk takers are more likely to see this as an opportunity to add to their portfolio at a lower cost. For those in the middle, it might well be a case of holding on and seeing what the future brings.
