Probably Accurate Analysis – Poor Timing
Of course today’s selloff is going to be blamed on Trump and his wife testing positive for Covid and the lack of a stimulus deal. The market does what it does and we fit the news to it, afterwards. I believe the decline was inevitable, particularly because of, and or exacerbated by, the IBK margin requirement changes. Where I initially got the timing wrong, was two fold. The first phase didn’t start until this past Monday, but that was only for new margin accounts. The increases on “Maintenance” margin don’t go into effect until this coming Monday Oct. 5th. I still expect other major brokerage firms to follow suit, although I don’t know if they will do it the same way. IBK’s requirements go up a little bit(approx. 1%), each trading day for most of the month. Stocks, and probably most everything else, have to fall.
Do not bet against the Fed. These markets will continue to go higher by sheer weight of liquidity.