I was a bit surprised when stocks opened up higher today–with the soft close last night I thought it might move lower, before a bounce was attempted.
The good part about the stock selloff is that it is fairly ‘orderly’. No panic, just folks moving out of what was already an over valued marketplace. Of course it is unpredictable what will happen when a cluster of corona virus folks are found throughout the U.S.–hopefully rational behavior will rule.
Like interest rates we need slow moves lower in interest rates and stock prices–speed kills. While the talking heads on the boob tube want to make yesterdays and todays selloffs a ‘plunge’ they obviously weren’t around in 1987 when every news reader on the old Financial News Network (FNN) was literally green–they were truly scared shitl— (no cussing allowed). Down 23% in 1 day is truly a plunge–I remember it well.
I actually did a little speculative buying today–not my nature, but the risk reward seems ok. I bought a few hundred shares in the Golar LNG Partners 8.75% perpetual (GMLPP) and I added more shares of the pig UMH-D 6.375% perpetual–a dividend capture gone bad-but I am patient and have lots and lots of dry powder so am willing to hold it for a while. Lastly I added some shares of VER-F 6.70%–a monthly payor that I already have bought and sold a number of times. Hopefully I won’t regret these buys–but they are minor in the big picture of things and I will lose no sleep over them.
Average $25 preferreds and baby bonds are off today around 15-20 cents so we are at least getting pricing down to where it is more tolerable for us potential buyers.