February 2018 has been a stressful month for stock investors. Volatility is back with a vengeance: The Dow Jones Industrial Average components – what we used to call “blue-chip stocks” for their safety and staidness, took some big stumbles early in the month. This happens every once in a while, – but this time the declines triggered some program trading, computers were programmed to dump stocks as soon as the Dow, S&P 500 or some other signal dropped below a given level. The selling forces stocks lower, triggering even more program trade selling, and so a vicious cycle takes over.

And that, despite an economy that is prospering by most metrics, is how the Dow recorded a record 1,175 point loss on February 8^th.

One might call it a reaction to a bull market that stockholders have appreciated over the last year. While we have seen a recovery since then (and stocks are setting new highs), the recent volatility has hopefully reinstated a healthy appreciation for risk: It is pretty scary to see 5 to 10 percent of your retirement nest egg disappear in a couple of days. Volatility can hurt.

Fortunately, the vast majority of our clients did not need to bat an eyelash. Indeed, some of them may even benefit from the volatility, as investors dump stocks looking for safer assets.

Self-Directed Investing means you do not have to worry about what the stock market does every day. Many of our clients have much of their long-term money invested in far more sound assets than stocks such as:

• Rental properties
• Commercial real estate
• Tax liens and certificates
• Gold and precious metals
• Closely-held companies, LLCs and partnerships
• Farms and ranches
• Land
• Private equity
• Venture capital
• Private lending
• Mortgage lending
• Equipment leasing

… and more.

While the value of each of these investments fluctuate, none of them are tied to the day-to-day fickleness of the stock market. Our clients have the luxury of being indifferent to most of the noise on Squawk Box and Jim Cramer’s Mad Money.

Most mature investors regard shows like these as a waste of time. The smart money is always way ahead of what the average consumer sees on TV.

As television and radio personality Dave Ramsey is fond of saying, “investing is a crockpot, not a microwave.” That is the approach taken by most Self-Directed IRA owners, who define holding periods in terms of years and decades, not hours and days. The longer your holding period, and the longer your investment time horizon, the less you have to worry about short-term volatility.

For alternative asset investors, there is no daily price index to track – and certainly no intra-day prices to obsess over. The focus is on the intrinsic value of the investment, and not on the opinions of millions of strangers – most of whom are not very smart anyway.

The lack of intraday pricing, and an overall more deliberate approach to investing and valuation, makes it much easier to avoid falling into the many traps of stock market speculation such as:

• Focusing on the short-term
• Panic selling on an impulse
• Program trading causing you to sell when you should be buying
• Thinking you are diversified when all your assets tend to move together

For many of our investors, the lack of correlation with the fickle stock market is a source of comfort. They derive piece of mind, knowing however fearful the talking heads on TV are behaving (generally at the wrong times), they do not have to participate in any correction or bear market.

Diversification is a fundamental principal of sound investing. Most individual investors do not do nearly enough of it, and find themselves over-exposed to a volatile stock market at the wrong time.  Self-Directed IRA strategies help you diversify, providing a much-needed hedge against stock market volatility – while still exposing you to opportunities for long-term growth and income.

If you want to do a thorough portfolio review, and find out how you can benefit from implementing Self-Directed IRA strategies in your own retirement investing, call us today at 866-7500-IRA(472).