Steven Wagner Discusses Recent Market Volatility with The Washington Post

Following Wall Street’s biggest point gain in history this Wednesday, Thursday was met with the U.S. stock markets fluttering throughout the entire day. However, the markets did end up prevailing, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing up 1.1 percent, the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index up .83 percent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index up .38 percent.

Despite the markets closing Thursday in positive territory, the dizzying movements throughout the day, such as the Dow falling more than 580 points in the afternoon before its eventual comeback, has caused some concerns for investors.

To help better understand this recent volatility and some of the possible reasons behind it, The Washington Post recently spoke with Steven Wagner, Omnia Family Wealth’s co-founder and chief executive officer.

According to Wagner, extremely quick and major shifts, such as the ones that occurred on Thursday, are more likely due to computer trading programs rather than any of the real factors influencing the stock market.

“The speed of these moves is stunning to watch, but we all understand that there’s a lot of momentum-based computer trading programs that push these things up or down,” explains Wagner. “With that said, we’re late in an economic cycle, nine years plus to an expansion. We don’t know when, but we’re going to have a slowdown at some point.”

To learn more about the recent market volatility, read the entire article from The Washington Post here.