Election’s Eve: Stock Market Concerns Across Tech Professionals

Last week, the S&P 500 fell nearly 6%; its worst week since the pandemic began to upend American lifestyles back in March. 

Tomorrow is Election Day, which will determine what party holds power in D.C. for the next few years.

On Blind, an anonymous community of verified professionals with 3.8 million users, tech users have been posting and speculating about the market’s average return post-election.

A user at the TRON Foundation posted, “$20k to invest: wait for post-election or now? No one can tell the future, but do you think it’s safer to wait until after the election to invest in the stock market or say screw it and do it now?

After 4,362 responses, more than half of tech professionals (55%) told the user to wait for post-election to invest their $20K.

Download the full report here.

This user isn’t the only professional concerned about how the election will affect the market. Another user at Toyota posted, “Are you selling or holding your stock before the election? I have about 80% of all my savings in the stock market, some of it is on ETF, but some are not. I’m a little bit nervous and I’m not sure what to do. Today the market went down, so it got me thinking.”

Although this poll only had 163 responses, nearly 64% of professionals claim they hold their stock positions. 

Bank of America Global Research analyzed historic S&P performance under presidents from both parties. The study learned that:

• The market’s average return has been higher under Democratic presidents than it’s been under Republicans. 
• Regardless of party, the S&P performs better in a president’s first term than in the second.
• Finally, stocks have performed better when leadership changes from one political party to the other. 

 However, these learnings do not seem to have appeased tech user’s minds. Another Amazon user asked, “Have 50K in cash. Wait till post election? There’s going to be a lot of volatility from now through elections. Itching to buy some stocks, but feel it’d be better to wait until the dust settles. What would you do?”

On September 30th, a Barclay’s user shared “I think I’m planning on selling soon, just very uncertain about the environment and after last nights debate I have no faith”

A different user at Citibank shared, “Definitely going to sell closer to the election if not now. Civil unrest will likely grow regardless of who wins.”

Stock prices are the tech industry’s lifeline. Stocks turn startup founders into billionaires, keep tech employees happy, and pay off early investors who can then fund the next round of startups. While stocks have soared under President Trump’s presidency, it was part of a long boom that began under Obama.

Are you changing your stock position before tomorrow’s election? Join the conversation!