Bull and Bear Market Update for May 23, 2022If you pay any attention to the news, especially the financial news, you're seeing a lot of stories with headlines that are designed to create panic. Sometimes they actually work. The #Fed is always a source for headlines because they have the power to turn a #Bull Market into a #Bear Market with one policy decision. The Fed has done spoken and the markets have reacted the way the Fed wanted the markets to react - and much more, IMO. Daily ReflectionsEveryday, I read at least 20 financial stories from a number of sources. Sometimes I just stumble on something that catches my attention (that's never a good way to be informed). Below is a story that caught my attention today from CNN. I'm a huge "NOT a fan" of CNN but I wanted to like this story even though my advice is don't trust anything you get from CNN. Nonetheless, I'm adding this story to my 2022 Market Watch Wiki so I can quickly share it with a client or an investor who may be momentarily gripped by fear. And, yes, I'm occasionally one of those investors myself because I hate losing money and I double hate losing money for my clients.3 Charts Say Don't PanicMarkets are down, but these charts explain why investors shouldn't panic, even if they feel like a #Bear Market is imminent.

From CNN Business May 23, 2022 — What goes up must come down, and what goes #bull must go #bear. The conventional wisdom is that a bit of market madness is inevitable, cyclical and should give investors a potential buying opportunity. 

But unfortunately this downswing doesn't appear to be the devil we know. 

Markets are contending with inflation rates at 40-year highs, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, supply chain kinks and food shortages, rising interest rates, widespread predictions of a recession and former Fed leaders openly questioning the actions of the current regime. 

Even the investors themselves are different. Covid-era stimulus checks, elevated unemployment and trading platforms aimed at young generations introduced a whole new group of up-and-coming traders to markets. 

About 20 million people started investing in the past two years. A 2021 survey by Schwab found that 15% of all US stock market investors said they first began investing in 2020. #Factoid

These market players have never been through a period of high inflation and high interest rates, and the sudden change in the economic environment is adding to market turbulence, said Leo Grohowski, chief investment officer at BNY Mellon Wealth Management. 

"What we're seeing is a weeding out of investors that were flushed with liquidity. They bought first and asked questions with meme stocks, SPACs, NFTs, there was a lot of what I call indiscriminate buying. And now we're seeing some indiscriminate selling," he said. 

Most investors are not prepared for this trading environment, Joshua Brown, co-founder and CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, said in a recent blog post. "This is one of the most treacherous environments I have ever seen, and I traded during the dot com meltdown, 9/11, Enron and Tyco and WorldCom and Lehman," and a host of other crises.

As Berkshire Hathaway's Charlie Munger said during the company's recent shareholder meeting, the stock market has become "almost a mania of speculation." He added that "we've got people who know nothing about stocks, being advised by stockbrokers who know even...