The coronavirus stockmarket meltdown scares me - should I sell my investments?

The coronavirus stockmarket meltdown scares me - should I sell my investments?

Continued bad news is testing our nerve. It’s all pretty grim out there. But behind all the industry jargon and ‘FTSE100s’ and pension funds with silly names, there lie collections of the world’s biggest companies.

We’re always more frightened of things we can’t see. It’s why we’re frightened of the dark. So let’s look past the FTSE100 name and think about what is actually in it. Let’s put a face to this beast.

Astra Zeneca – they make medicines; Aviva; BT; Diageo – Johnny Walker and Smirnoff producers; HSBC; Morrisons; Ocado; Taylor Wimpey – they build homes; Vodafone….So here’s my question to you. Do you really think that over the longer-term there are good solid fundamental reasons for these companies (when seen collectively) being worth about a third less than they were a month ago? No.

Here's another question. If you were thinking about selling your house, but you didn’t have to. And then there were lots of stories about house price crashes. You’d just take your ouse off the market and wait till next year. So why behave differently with shares?

Keep Calm and Carry On.