What to do in a stock market crash – Stick or Twist? (Update 2024)

Back in 2015 I carried out a piece of research titled "The best strategy in a stock market crash – Stick or Twist?"

However a lot has happened over the course of the last nine years, including the fastest bear market in history. So do the findings of the original research article still hold true? What about during the pandemic crash?

There were two key conclusions that came out of the original piece of research and they were that:

• When markets suddenly sell-off typically they will bounce back strongly around 6 days later
• Typically the bounce after a sell-off will take you 1.8-2% above where the FTSE 100 closed on the initial bad day

Best and worst ever days for the FTSE 100

The FTSE 100 was launched in January 1984 which means that I now have over 40 years of daily movements in the FTSE 100 to analyse.