The COVID-19 Market Crash of 2020: Lessons from the Pandemic-Induced Economic Turmoil
- brandon rossi
- Mar 26
- 20 min read
Imagine you’re a new investor in early 2020, feeling on top of the world – and then BAM! the stock market goes into freefall as if someone hit a giant pause (or panic) button.
One week you’re reading about record highs; the next, it’s like the financial sky is falling. If this sounds dramatic, well, it was. In March 2020, the COVID-19 market crash turned calm investors into nail-biters. Don’t worry, grab a coffee and settle in.
We will break down exactly what happened during the 2020 crash (in plain English), how different stocks were affected, how the market miraculously bounced back by year-end, and what lessons you, as a new investor, can learn from this wild rollercoaster ride. (Bonus: there’s some humor and storytelling along the way – because let’s face it, sometimes you gotta laugh to keep from crying when your portfolio is tanking.)
What Triggered the Crash? (Pandemic Panic 101)
In early 2020, news started trickling in about a novel coronavirus in China. By late February and early March, that trickle became a global flood of bad news.
The COVID-19 outbreak was officially declared a pandemic, countries began implementing lockdowns, and economic activity slammed on the brakes. Picture restaurants, theaters, and sports arenas all going dark overnight. Travel bans popped up, supply chains snarled, and basically half of humanity was suddenly stuck at home – literally.
(By early April 2020, more than 3.9 billion people worldwide were in some form of lockdown !) This unprecedented situation understandably spooked investors.
With shops closed and planes grounded, everyone started envisioning dire scenarios for corporate earnings and economic growth. Panic selling set in as investors big and small rushed to sell stocks and hoard cash. It was a classic fear-driven stampede.
If you’d peeked at your brokerage app in March 2020, you might have felt your heart skip a beat – or five. Legendary JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon captured the mood by warning that we were likely headed into “a bad recession combined with some kind of financial stress similar to the global financial crisis of 2008".
In other words: this was not your run-of-the-mill market dip; it had the makings of a once-in-a-generation meltdown.
March 2020: A Historic Freefall on Wall Street
Let’s zero in on the craziest month: March 2020 – a month that will forever live in infamy for investors. The stock market’s plunge was so fast and so deep that record books were being rewritten almost daily.
How fast? The S&P 500 (an index of 500 big companies) fell into a bear market (down over 20% from its peak) in just 16 trading days, the quickest drop of that magnitude ever recorded.
By March 23, the S&P 500 had cratered about 34% from its mid-February high. To put that in perspective, in barely over a month, one-third of the market’s value vanished – one of the sharpest, swiftest declines in history.
It wasn’t just the magnitude, it was the gut-wrenching volatility that made your head spin. Huge swings became routine. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (another major index) had its worst single-day drop in modern history on March 16, plummeting almost 13%. (For context, that was worse than any single day in 2008, and rivaled the infamous 1987 crash.)
In fact, the average daily move for the Dow in March 2020 was around ±5%, imagine the market gaining 5% one day, then losing 5% the next, over and over. It was a whiplash-inducing ride where phrases like “circuit breaker” (temporary trading halts on exchanges) became part of everyday conversation because the declines were so steep they kept tripping the market’s safety switches.
Investors watched in shock as major indexes that had been at record highs just weeks earlier went into a tailspin. Virtually no one was spared in those brutal weeks. Even usually calm voices were sounding alarms. The U.S. economy was essentially put into a coma to fight the virus – weekly unemployment claims exploded into the millions, and by April the U.S. jobless rate hit 14.7% (the highest since the Great Depression).
It felt like the world was ending, financially and otherwise. No wonder people started selling stocks like there was no tomorrow – they feared there might not be a normal tomorrow for a long time.
The Damage: Which Stocks and Sectors Got Hit Hardest
While the overall market was tanking, some sectors were absolutely body-slammed by the pandemic’s fallout. The most obvious victim: anything related to travel or hospitality. If you think about it, travel was directly in the crosshairs of lockdowns and social distancing. Airlines, cruise lines, hotels, booking sites – these went from booming businesses to near-zero revenue practically overnight. There’s even an acronym for many of these travel-leisure stocks: the “BEACH” stocks (Booking, Entertainment, Airlines, Cruises, Hotels).
The pandemic wiped out staggering amounts of their market value. For example, by late March 2020 the global airline industry had lost about 41% of its value (roughly $157 billion), and cruise line giants Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian saw over half of their combined value evaporate (about $42 billion gone). It’s hard to find a parallel; even after 9/11 or the 2008 crisis, people still flew and vacationed to some extent – but COVID-19 brought travel to a standstill. United Airlines’ CEO Oscar Munoz lamented it was “the most disruptive global crisis in the history of aviation”, and he wasn’t exaggerating.
Another casualty was the energy sector, especially oil companies. In spring 2020, oil demand collapsed so hard that for the first time ever, the price of U.S. crude oil went negative – meaning sellers paid others to take oil off their hands because storage tanks were overflowing. (Yes, that actually happened!) On April 20, 2020, a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude briefly traded as low as –$38 – effectively oil was less than worthless.
This mind-bending event underscored how severely the stay-at-home orders crushed demand for fuel. Oil and gas stock prices accordingly were crushed: big oil firms and smaller drillers alike saw their stocks cut in half or worse, and some energy companies went bankrupt.
Banks and financial stocks also got hit, as investors feared a wave of loan defaults and credit crunches. Remember, in a true economic “freeze”, people and businesses might not be able to pay mortgages, credit cards, or loans – bad news for banks.
In early March 2020, many bank CEOs (and the Federal Reserve) started bracing for a scenario as bad as, or worse than, the 2008 financial crisis. Jamie Dimon (JPMorgan’s CEO) even suspended his bank’s stock buybacks to conserve capital and warned that in a worst-case scenario, GDP could plunge 35% in one quarter. Bank stocks fell hard (20-40%+ down) during the crash.
To sum up, cyclical industries that depend on a healthy, traveling, freely spending public were hammered. Airlines, cruise lines, hotels, casinos, brick-and-mortar retailers, restaurants, energy companies, automakers – you name it. Many of these stocks lost well over half their value at the depths of the crash. If your portfolio in March 2020 was overweight in, say, airline stocks, it was probably down for the count. There’s a reason investors call these “bloodbath” scenarios.
Surprise Winners: Stocks That Thrived in Lockdown
Not every stock was left for dead in 2020 – far from it. In a bizarre twist, some sectors actually thrived precisely because everyone was stuck at home. As the saying goes, one person’s crisis is another’s opportunity. The stay-at-home economy became the trade of 2020. Think about how your own habits changed during lockdowns – you worked from home on your computer, shopped online, binged Netflix, ordered food delivery, maybe took up home workouts or hobbies. Certain companies fit this new reality like a glove, and their stocks skyrocketed as demand for their services exploded.
The most famous example is Zoom Video Communications, the video conferencing platform that practically defined the work-and-socialize-from-home era. Zoom went from a niche business tool to a household name in weeks (“Zooming” became a verb). Accordingly, Zoom’s stock went to the moon – by late 2020, it was up around 635% year-to-date! (No, that’s not a typo – Zoom’s value septupled, reflecting how vital it became for remote work, virtual classes, and even digital happy hours.)
E-commerce king Amazon was another big winner. Millions of consumers, unable or unwilling to go to physical stores, turned to Amazon for everything from groceries to gym equipment. Amazon literally couldn’t hire people fast enough to meet the surge in orders. The company’s sales jumped by tens of billions of dollars, and its stock price jumped nearly 80% in 2020. Amazon was already huge, but the pandemic was like pouring gasoline on a fire for their business growth. CEO Jeff Bezos’s fortune swelled, and Amazon’s share price hit all-time highs even as the broader economy struggled.
Streaming entertainment and online content companies also thrived. Netflix added subscribers like crazy (I mean, we all needed something to binge-watch in quarantine, right?). In the first quarter of 2020 alone, Netflix gained about 16 million new subscribers worldwide, a record. By the end of 2020, Netflix stock was up roughly 59% for the year.
Other “stay-home” beneficiaries included Peloton (home exercise equipment and virtual classes – its stock spiked as gyms closed), Shopify (helping businesses sell online), Etsy (online marketplace, which boomed especially with people buying and selling cloth face masks and home goods), and video game companies. Tech in general was on a tear. The NASDAQ index (tech-heavy) actually gained about 43% in 2020, hitting new records, which is incredible in a year with a global pandemic.
This stark divide — “laptop economy” stocks surging while traditional economy stocks floundered — was a unique feature of the COVID crash. In previous crashes, correlations often went to 1 (meaning almost everything falls together). But in 2020, if your company helped people work, play, or shop from home, investors flocked to it. It’s as if we had two economies: the “real” physical economy which was on ice, and the digital economy which was on fire. For new investors, it was eye-opening to see that even in a massive downturn, there were bright spots and even big winners in the stock market.
Of course, even some winners had crazy rides.
By late 2020, there was a bit of a reality check when positive vaccine news came out – suddenly everyone thought “Hey, maybe we will go back outside soon,” and some high-flying stay-home stocks like Zoom and Peloton took a temporary dip on that news. But overall, those who held tech and e-commerce stocks through 2020 did very well, while those concentrated in travel or energy felt the most pain. This contrast underscores the importance of the almighty concept of diversification (more on that in the lessons section!).
Rescue Mission: The Government to the Rescue (Stimulus & Fed Firepower)
So far, this might sound like a one-way trip to doom. But here’s where the narrative takes a turn: just as panic peaked, policy makers swooped in with unprecedented force. In March 2020, both the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve essentially said, “We’ll do whatever it takes to save the economy and markets.” It was like the financial cavalry showing up just as the fort was about to be overrun.
Congress and the White House rolled out the CARES Act, a massive $2.2 trillion stimulus package (yes, trillion with a “t”) signed into law on March 27, 2020. This bill threw a lifeline to the economy: direct checks to millions of Americans (remember those $1,200 stimulus checks?), extra $600 per week in unemployment benefits for those out of work, hundreds of billions in loans/grants to small businesses (the PPP program), aid to airlines and other industries, and funding for hospitals and state governments.
It was the largest emergency relief bill in U.S. history, roughly 10% of U.S. GDP. The message was clear: the government was not going to sit idle while the economy collapsed. For investors, this was a big deal – it meant consumers and businesses would get support to pay bills and stay afloat, potentially shortening the recession.
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve (the Fed) went into “superhero mode.” The Fed is the U.S. central bank, and it has huge influence on liquidity and credit. In early March 2020, the Fed slashed interest rates to near zero (0%–0.25% range) in an emergency move, and soon launched a massive bond-buying quantitative easing (QE) program of at least $700 billion (and later essentially made it unlimited). The idea was to pump money into the financial system, keep borrowing costs ultra-low, and ensure markets kept functioning.
But they didn’t stop there – the Fed pulled out an arsenal of 2008-style and brand-new programs: they set up facilities to buy corporate bonds (even ETFs), backstop money market funds, support loans to small and mid-sized businesses, and more. The scope was mind-boggling; the Fed was basically printing money (figuratively) and flooding the economy with it. One meme that went viral showed the Fed’s money printer going “brrr” (the sound of a running printing press) – a humorous take on how aggressively the Fed was intervening.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell made it clear that the Fed would not run out of firepower. In his words, “We’re not out of ammunition by a long shot.”. He also said there’s “no limit” to what they can do with their lending programs. Translation: the Fed had the markets’ back.
This assurance was like a security blanket for panicky investors. Suddenly, the worst-case scenarios (a full financial system meltdown) seemed far less likely because Big Brother Fed was ready to prop up essentially every corner of the credit markets.
These government and Fed actions were crucial in stopping the market freefall. In fact, the very day the Fed announced some of its most aggressive measures (March 23, 2020, including an unlimited QE and corporate bond-buying program), that marked the bottom of the stock market.
Coincidence? Not really. It was a turning point where fear began giving way to a sense that “Okay, there’s a safety net under us.” Investors often say “Don’t fight the Fed,” meaning you shouldn’t bet against the market when the Fed is pumping in support. 2020 was a case study in that. Once the money spigots opened and stimulus checks went out, confidence slowly returned. By late March and April, stocks started rising again, even as the pandemic’s human toll worsened.
It might seem disconnected from reality (and in some ways it was), but markets were looking ahead to the massive liquidity and stimulus as lights at the end of the tunnel.
To sum up: the fiscal and monetary response to COVID-19 was unlike anything seen before. Trillions of dollars were injected into the economy. This taught new investors a powerful lesson in real-time: Government policy directly affects markets.
When Uncle Sam and the Fed throw everything including the kitchen sink at a crisis, it can put a floor under the market. Stocks reversed course in part because smart money knew you don’t stay bearish when the Fed is effectively backstopping everything. It’s like the cavalry trumpets sounding – a signal that the worst might be over.
The Robinhood Revolution: Retail Investors Join the Fray
There’s another interesting character in this story: the retail investor – everyday folks like you and me. Stuck at home during lockdowns, with stimulus money in hand and zero-commission trading apps on our phones, millions of people turned to the stock market in 2020. Platforms like Robinhood experienced a massive surge in new users and trading activity.
Over 10 million new brokerage accounts were opened by individuals in 2020, and Robinhood led the pack in attracting these newbies. It was like a perfect storm: no sports to bet on (so some sports bettors tried stocks), lots of free time, extra cash from stimulus or saved commuting costs, and easy-to-use apps that made trading feel almost like a game.
By mid-2020, retail investors became a force to be reckoned with. They were buying up beaten-down stocks aggressively – the mindset was “buy the dip,” even if the dip was a crater. In many cases, their bold bets paid off as the market rebounded. There were even quirky episodes that showed the influence of this new retail army. For example, Hertz, a car rental company, filed for bankruptcy in May 2020 (usually that means the stock is worthless). But a frenzy of amateur traders on Robinhood piled into Hertz stock after the bankruptcy, driving it up by 825% at one point!
(Yes, a bankrupt company’s stock skyrocketed – logic went out the window for a moment there.) It got so crazy that even billionaire investors were baffled; Carl Icahn, a famous Hertz investor, had sold his shares for pennies, only to watch young traders bid the price up to several dollars again. This was one of the early signs that “meme stock” culture – fueled by social media forums like WallStreetBets – was emerging, where stocks became viral bets disconnected from fundamentals.
Retail investors also poured into tech stocks, options trading, and buzzy names like Tesla (which soared and split its stock), sometimes using leverage or weekly call options for turbocharged bets. By some estimates, individual traders accounted for roughly 20-25% of stock market volume in 2020, a huge jump from years prior.
Many long-time market observers credited (or blamed) these newcomers for adding fuel to the rally that unfolded after March. Their optimism (or YOLO attitude, in internet lingo) was infectious – they had a mantra that “stonks only go up” (intentionally misspelling “stocks” in a meme). While that’s definitely not true in the long run, for much of 2020 it felt true: every dip was bought enthusiastically, helping propel the market higher.
From a storytelling perspective, the rise of Robinhood traders added a feel-good (and sometimes humorous) subplot to the 2020 crash. It was the democratization of trading – ordinary people taking charge of their investments, sometimes learning hard lessons, other times scoring big wins. It also raised some concerns: were these newbies taking on too much risk, chasing rumors, or day-trading without sufficient knowledge? Possibly. But undeniably, they played a role in the market’s recovery. They injected liquidity and confidence at a critical time. When institutional investors were still cautious, retail investors were diving in headfirst, snapping up everything from blue-chip tech stocks to penny stocks. This “Robinhood effect” became part of market folklore, and it’s a trend that likely will persist beyond 2020 (as we later saw with meme stock crazes in 2021).
For you as a new investor, the key takeaway from the retail trading boom is: the little guys can move markets too, especially when they act en masse. Just remember that following the crowd can be a double-edged sword – it worked out in 2020’s rebound, but it doesn’t always. Some who chased high-flying stocks late in 2020 got burned in 2021 when trends reversed. So, celebrate the empowerment of retail investors, but always do your own research and be cautious of herd mentality.
From Crash to Comeback: The Market’s Dramatic Recovery by Year-End
Here’s the plot twist nobody saw coming in March: by the end of 2020, the stock market not only recovered its losses – it reached new all-time highs. 🤯 It sounds almost absurd given the grim reality of the pandemic, but it’s true. After bottoming out on March 23, stocks began an upward climb that, with some bumps along the way, lasted through the rest of the year. The recovery was record-breakingly swift.
By August 2020, the S&P 500 had already regained its pre-crash peak and hit a new record high, fully erasing the bear-market drop in about five months. That’s an incredibly fast rebound; for comparison, after the 2008 crash, it took years to return to the prior peak.
Come autumn, despite a second COVID wave and a contentious U.S. election, the market kept chugging upward. The cherry on top was in November, when multiple effective vaccine announcements (Pfizer, Moderna, etc.) hit the news. That was a game-changer for investor sentiment: a light at the end of the tunnel for the pandemic. Stocks that had been down-and-out (like travel companies) suddenly jumped on vaccine optimism, while the overall market rallied further.
By December 31, 2020, the results were astonishing: The S&P 500 index finished the year up ~16% (yes, up for the year, despite that 34% crash in March). The tech-heavy NASDAQ was up a whopping 43% for 2020, its best year in decades, driven by those superstar tech stocks. Even the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which is full of more traditional companies, managed to end the year with a solid gain around 7%. In fact, the S&P 500 closed out 2020 at a record high. It’s as if the market said “COVID who?” by the year’s end.
How did this dramatic comeback happen, even as the real economy was still hurting? In a nutshell: markets are forward-looking. Investors were betting on a future economic recovery, fueled by all that stimulus and the eventual rollout of vaccines. Interest rates were at 0%, making stocks relatively attractive compared to bonds. Corporate earnings for many big companies (especially in tech) held up better than expected or even grew.
There was also a TINA effect – “There Is No Alternative” – with bonds yielding so little, a lot of cash had nowhere to go but stocks. And those fearless retail investors we talked about kept buying dips.
By year-end, many who panic-sold in March were kicking themselves, while those who held on (or bought more at the lows) were feeling vindicated. The market’s resiliency was a shock to many seasoned pros. Even Warren Buffett admitted he did not expect such a rapid turnaround (Berkshire Hathaway, his company, actually sold some stocks in April 2020, like airline stocks, only to see them bounce later).
It’s worth noting that not everything fully recovered by the end of 2020. Some of the hardest-hit travel and entertainment stocks were still well below their pre-pandemic prices (for example, major airline and hotel stocks were still down on the year, though off the worst lows). But broadly, the financial markets healed at a record pace.
The contrast between Main Street (high unemployment, small business struggles) and Wall Street (soaring stocks) was a big topic of debate. But as an investor, it underscored a key truth: the stock market is not the economy. In 2020, the market rallied on liquidity, low rates, and future hopes, even while current economic data was terrible. Understanding that can prevent a lot of confusion – and it reminds us why staying calm and invested can pay off when the market’s logic seems upside-down.
Alright, we’ve relived the chaos and the comeback. Now let’s distill the wisdom from this experience. What lessons can new investors take away from the 2020 COVID crash saga?
Lessons for New Investors from the 2020 Crash
The 2020 crash was a trial by fire for many investors. Those who came out the other side have a few stories to tell – and a few lessons learned. Here are some of the key takeaways that can help you become a smarter investor (so you’ll be prepared when the next crazy market event happens):
Don’t over-invest in one sector: If we learned anything, it’s that putting all your money in one industry can backfire big time. Many investors who were all-in on, say, airline stocks or oil stocks got absolutely clobbered in 2020. Some sectors (travel, energy, hospitality) were uniquely vulnerable to this pandemic. If your portfolio was too concentrated in those, you likely saw huge losses. The lesson? Avoid betting the farm on a single sector or theme. No matter how promising an industry seems, unexpected events can devastate it. Spread your bets (see next point) so that no one event can wreck your whole portfolio.
The importance of diversification: This goes hand-in-hand with the first point. Diversification – owning a mix of different types of investments (across various industries, and even different asset classes like stocks, bonds, etc.) – is the closest thing to a free lunch in investing. In 2020, while airlines and hotels were tanking, other areas like tech and e-commerce were booming. If you had a well-diversified portfolio, the strong performance of your Amazon/Apple/Zoom shares could offset some of the pain from your Disney or Delta Air Lines shares. By not putting all your eggs in one basket, you ensure that when something unexpected (like a pandemic) hits one part of the economy, you’re not 100% doomed. Diversification won’t prevent losses in a downturn, but it can reduce them and make the ride a bit smoother. It’s the classic “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” wisdom – 2020 just hammered that home in dramatic fashion.
Have some cash (and an emergency fund): We often focus on the investing side of things, but personal finance 101 says always keep an emergency fund in cash for a rainy day. 2020’s sudden shock reinforced why. Those who had a cash cushion could cover their bills during furloughs or job losses without having to sell investments at the worst possible time. From an investing perspective, having some cash on the sidelines also gave people the ability to buy the dip – scooping up stocks on sale in March 2020. (As the famous saying goes, “Buy when there’s blood in the streets.” Easier said than done, of course.) If you were fully invested with no cash, you had no ammo to take advantage of the bargains. So, lesson: keep an emergency fund for life’s surprises, and consider keeping some investable cash or liquid assets that you can deploy when opportunities arise. It’s a fine balance (you don’t want too much cash because it drags down long-term returns), but 2020 showed the value of liquidity when chaos hits.
Stay calm and avoid panic selling: This might be the hardest lesson emotionally, but it’s hugely important. If you sold all your stocks during the darkest days of March 2020, you likely locked in big losses – and worse, you may have missed the swift rebound that followed. The market recovery by year-end meant that an investor who held a broad index fund through the turmoil actually came out ahead for 2020. But the investor who freaked out and went to cash in March would have fallen behind (and then faced the dilemma of when to get back in). The lesson? Don’t let fear guide your decisions. Market downturns, even extreme ones, have historically been temporary. As long as you’re invested in quality assets and have a long-term horizon, the best course is usually to grit your teeth and ride it out. It’s like being on a turbulent flight – if you jump out mid-air, you’re in trouble; better to stay seated and trust it will pass. Develop a long-term mindset: the investors who kept calm and stuck to their plan were rewarded in 2020. Those who gave in to panic often regretted it. (Pro tip: if market volatility makes you lose sleep, you might need to dial down your stock exposure to a level where you can remain calm.)
Watch government policy (a.k.a. don’t fight the Fed or Congress): The COVID crash taught us that what policymakers do can dramatically move markets. When the Fed slashes rates or Congress unleashes stimulus, it can put a floor under stock prices (or even ignite a rally). In 2020, the saying “Don’t fight the Fed” was again proven true – once the Fed went all-in, bears (pessimists betting on further declines) were steamrolled. For new investors, this means you should pay attention to major government and central bank actions. They’re not the only factors that matter, but they’re huge. If you had been following the news in late March 2020 and saw the avalanche of support coming, you might have thought twice about selling in a panic. Similarly, when the government spends trillions on infrastructure or passes tax law changes, those can create headwinds or tailwinds for different sectors. This doesn’t mean you need a PhD in economics or have to trade on every Fed meeting, but keep the bigger picture in mind. If the Fed is in easing mode (making money cheap and plentiful), that’s generally bullish for stocks. If they’re tightening (raising rates, pulling back support), it can be bearish. In short, policy affects the economy and markets, so be an informed investor about macro trends. It’s one reason the market rebounded while the pandemic still raged – policy was ultra-supportive.
Expect the unexpected (and stay prepared): Okay, this is a bonus lesson, but it encapsulates 2020. Nobody predicted a viral pandemic would shut down the world in 2020. Yet such “black swan” events do happen. The crash reminded everyone that market downturns can come out of the blue and things can escalate extremely fast. This is why you should always invest with a margin of safety. That means: don’t use money you’ll need soon for long-term investments (had you been saving for a house down payment in stocks, you’d have been in a tough spot in March 2020). It also means maintain that balanced portfolio and emergency fund we talked about. If you’re always prepared for the possibility of a crash, you won’t be caught off-guard when one occurs. In investing, certainty is a mirage – expect the unexpected, be prepared, and you’ll handle surprises much better.
Finally, remember that every crash, no matter how painful, has been followed by a recovery. The 2020 COVID crash was actually a testament to the market’s resilience. It turned out to be the fastest bear market decline and one of the fastest recoveries ever. History shows that those who stay in the game and keep their wits about them can come out stronger on the other side. As the great investor Warren Buffett likes to say, “Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.” In March 2020, fear was everywhere; the greedy (bold) investors who bought at peak fear made a killing by year-end.
In summary: the COVID-19 market crash taught new investors the importance of diversification, staying calm, having cash buffers, and paying attention to the big picture (like government moves) – and above all, it reinforced that long-term optimism wins out over short-term panic. Markets are unpredictable in the short run, but over time, they tend to recover and reward patience. If you can internalize these lessons, you’ll be better prepared for whatever the market throws at you next. And who knows, maybe someday you’ll be the friend calmly explaining to someone else over coffee how you navigated the “Corona Crash of 2020” with nerves of steel and came out wiser for it!
Sources:
Bankrate – Biggest stock market crashes in US history (Aug 2024)
LPL Financial – Weekly Market Commentary: Fastest Bear Market (Mar 2021)
Reuters – Airlines lose $157B in value amid pandemic (Mar 2020)
Visual Capitalist – “BEACH” stocks plunge in value (Mar 2020)
The Guardian – U.S. oil prices go negative for first time (Apr 20, 2020)
MarketWatch (via 60 Minutes) – Fed Chair Powell: “Not out of ammunition” (May 2020)
Business Insider – Jamie Dimon letter: bad recession likely (Apr 2020)
MarketWatch – United Airlines CEO on aviation crisis (May 2020)
Business Insider – Zoom up 635% in 2020; Amazon +79%, Netflix +59%
Business Insider – Hertz stock skyrockets 825% post-bankruptcy (Jun 2020)
AP News – S&P 500 ends 2020 at record high, +16% on year; Nasdaq +43%
Business Insider – 10 million new brokerage accounts in 2020 (Apr 2021)
Baird/Washington Post – Retail traders = ~20% of market volume in 2020
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