Measuring the markets: when not to panic
It has been a far quieter week for stock market investors, but nerves are still on edge following October’s slump. Investors are facing two options: panic or don’t panic.
The stock market mayhem which hammered shares and wrangled nerves in October seems to have calmed down. Even the disruption of a US midterm election and an oil price slip failed to upset a far calmer week for global stock markets. That’s a sharp contrast to this time two weeks ago, when the FTSE 100 dipped to 6,940 points, down 11% from its May high. For investors, there are two ways to deal with that correction: A) Panic. That’s certainly the easy option when even the most reliable stocks are on the slide. In the UK, October took the wind…