Japanese stock market
The Japanese stock market index is called the Nikkei. You may think that Japan’s stock market has nothing to do with ours but you could not be any more wrong.
Now more than ever the economy of America is dependent on Europe, Asia… What happens in the Nikkei positively correlates to what happens in our stock market very strongly over time. The Asian stock markets in particular have a huge impact on our stock markets because they open several hours before ours do and therefore help set the tone for the opening of our stock market.
The Nikkei experienced a huge bubble and later, a huge crash in the early 1990′s and it still has yet to fully recover. Their index spiked around 40,000 and then crashed down to around 15,000. That had a profound impact on Japan’s economy and way of life. Over time their stock market still has proved to be a solid investment despite the crash. Instead of trying to “time” the market, buying and selling all of the time thinking that you are smarter than everyone else it is usually just best to buy early, buy often, and never sell unless you have to.