I really would like to know if you folks see something in this economy that is obvious after the fact causing the dip.
Nope. I see political turmoil, but not economic turmoil. I think people are just skittish.
As a friendly reminder, the stock market is not the economy. The stock market is the price rich people are willing to pay today for a slice of future profits from the economy, which is not totally uncorrelated, but also is not the same thing. The economy hums along on its own regardless of what the stock market is doing. The stock market argues its way up and down with only minimal regard for how the economy is doing. Try to remember that they are separate.
It only took 25 years for stocks to return to the post great depression levels.
That's not entirely fair. The market was paying roughly 10% dividends for a bunch of those years when the post 1929 crash depression was in full effect. At yields like that, who needs price appreciation?
I ask it again - Does this appear to be just a normal business cycle thing?
I'm not even convinced it's related to the business cycle at all. I think it's just fearful speculation because of the trade war, the budget breakdown, irresponsible leadership, and tax policies that increase wealth disparities. So far, corporate earnings are looking just fine.
The United States has the world's largest trade deficit.
Also the most valuable economy and the highest standard of living. It's a mixed bag, which has so far worked out pretty well for us.
But not I'm beginning to see that you can't time it, but if you sit with cash like some of you, your time will arrive. Opportunities will knock.
Please tell me that you already see the obvious flaw in this logic. If not, I'll spell it out for you: if you've been sitting in cash for any significant of time, you have missed out on incredible recent stock price appreciation. Yes, you could now buy in at lower prices, but you've also already failed to buy at lower prices, from a year or two ago. The past several years have been a relentless march upwards, with little to no pullbacks. Anyone who was waiting for that knock of opportunity since this "end is nigh" mania started in about 2013 now NEEDS a 50% correction to just break even compared to those of us who just bought in all along, and rode the rocket ship up.