‘Perversely, the more fear the better’ what investors are waiting for before calling the bottom

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on March 18, 2020 in New York City. The Dow fell more than 1,200 points today as COVID-19 fears continue to roil world markets.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
Some investors are taking a counterintuitive approach when looking for a bottom in stocks amid this historic sell-off: They are waiting for the coronavirus headlines to get much scarier before buying.
Under normal market dynamics, investors and traders would wait for headlines around key catalysts to start improving before jumping back into riskier assets such as stocks. One example of this dynamic was seen during the “phase one” negotiations of the U.S.-China trade deal. As headlines improved and it became clear that a deal would get done, stocks started to turn around.
However, given the fast-spreading nature of the coronavirus, some market …continued .
[Source: CNBC News]