Short-term Price Swings

Apr 2020

In recent weeks, a number of stocks have seen daily price moves of 20+% up and down—sometimes on consecutive days. If such dramatic moves don’t seem crazy, they should. ... Let us repeat: In times like this, we think steep declines in stock prices primarily reflect the resolution of temporary imbalances between buyers and sellers. Most of today’s stock prices, in our view, don’t come close to reflecting long-term economic value. This is nothing new. Stock prices that temporarily disconnect from economic reality have been fixtures of many bear markets.