Too much noise, too much price manipulation. I’ve stayed invested but I’m holding my powder dry during this bull run. Bull trap? Maybe, time will tell.
Markets are pricing in Biden winning. If Trump starts to level out in the polls, which he will, the stocks will retract. Markets aren't the economy though.
I have been working from home so there was no change for me but so many others in the company had to learn to work with kids or pets interrupting plus having to get things done without others there to help/do etc. Before COVID-19 industry analyst IDC estimated well less than 10% of the workforce worked between 25% and 50% from home; now, over 20% work 75% or greater from home, and in 2021 almost 40% will work between 25%-50% from home and another 15% will work from 50%-75% from home. So it will become more the norm. One other workplace transition caused by COVID-19 will be office design. Lots of companies including my own have long past transitioned from offices with doors to cubicles and many more recently have moved to "open office design" (no cubicles, shared table workspace) that supposedly improved collaboration and team work (in reality, cut costs by eliminating office and cubicle creating/resizing/refurnishing). Now with COVID-19, that "openness" is a virus transmission nightmare. So I'd anticipate companies switching back to cubicles at the least to maintain social distancing. AT least I hope for those moved back from "working from home". Another corporate transition will be more liberal rules re: working from home. Many companies have strict guidelines (eg distance from office) before allowing someone to work from home. Hopefully those guidelines will be s-canned. We have already had furloughs (2 weeks... I have used one of my two). But our industry has been significantly impacted both in the way we do business (lots of F2F selling) and to who we sell to (higher ed and k-12 is one of our core markets). Fortunately, another of our main target markets is healthcare, and they have been largely stable. Plus another is government. There are some vendors successfully targeting "work from home" employees with bundles that include services and collaboration tools. Unfortunately, those vendors sell smaller/less expensive offerings than my firm.
I have taken about a 25-30% reduction in benefits and salary, and 15% of my staff have been furloughed and likely will ultimately be fired. Still working though!
I mentioned this in the stock thread but I'm curious to see how much of this was driven by the PPP loan stimulus and how much by the economy reopening....
Interesting and balanced twitter thread on the numbers by a former chief economist with the Bureau of Labor...
[BREAKING] My investment portfolio has now FULLY RECOVERED from the COVID dip. The Lord is in this place! GOOD DAY
Not the most positive news, but it definitely beats the last 3 months. Maybe our country is starting to rebound a bit.
The BLS statement had that clarification in the notes so those journalists and being disingenuous . However its still better than 20%. I still don't see with the claims as high as they have been, not having 20% unemployment. Are the 2 million jobs opening with 2 million people being laid off. Who is hiring right now?
No Stimulus was right, should not have done the horrific tax cuts. Just another round of Republican rule with disastrous effects on our society.
