Millennials say they’re in the stock market for the long haul

The stock market’s wild swings of the past three trading days — a 666-point drop in the Dow Jones industrial average on Friday, 1,175-point drop Monday and 567-point gain Tuesday — were not enough to rattle some Long Island investors interviewed Tuesday.

From millennials who said they’re in the market for the long haul, to a retiree who said he reduced his stock holdings before the “correction,” they said they’ll continue to stay focused on their long-term goals.

At Craig James Financial Services, a Melville-based brokerage firm, “Our phone is ringing but there is no panic,” president Craig Ferrantino said. “The advice I’m giving my clients is just hang in there.”

‘It’s the best time to buy’

Michelle Blum, 29, a licensed nutritionist who lives in Amityville and is the founder of Nutrish Mish, a nutrition counseling company, said the drop in the Dow does not worry her.

“It’s like I tell my clients who are trying to lose weight, you can’t weigh yourself every day,” she said.

“It’s the same with watching the stock market, if you’re looking at it hour after hour, you’ll drive yourself crazy . . . but if you look at significant periods of time, after the ups and downs, it usually evens itself out.”

While acknowledging that it can be scary to watch the stock indexes plummet, “it’s the best time to buy,” said Blum, adding that she’s eyeing some stocks she’d like to buy. She said she’s been investing in stocks for eight years.

“If I was retiring tomorrow, I’d be very upset,” she said. “But I’m young, and my strategy right now is more aggressive.”— Daysi Calavia-Robertson

‘It was time for a correction’

Martin Blumberg, a 76-year-old Melville resident and self-confessed business news aficionado, is feeling pretty good about his decision in the last six to eight months to sell most of his stock and move into cash.

“I felt that the market was overvalued and that it was time for a correction,” said the retiree, who is still co-owner of the Mineola-based Auto Barn car parts chain. Now he is 20 percent in stocks and 80 percent in cash, the reverse of his position last year, he said.

“I was pleased the market was going down because I was out of the market for a long time, waiting for the dip,” he said, adding that a correction “was overdue.” Blumberg said he believes the market “will go down a little more before it starts to go up.”

Now he is eagerly waiting on the sidelines for the right time to wade back in.

“Getting back in,” he said, “is as important as getting out.”

— Carrie Mason-Draffen

A ‘get rich slow business’

Filippo Impennato, 30, an information technology consultant for Melville cybersecurity firm Total Technology Solutions, has been investing since graduating from college in 2011.

He said his interest in the market was spurred by the “glitz and glamour” he saw in Hollywood films like 1987’s “Wall Street,” but he quickly realized stock investing is a “get rich slow business.”

“I’m young, so what’s happening now is not really affecting me,” Impennato said, adding that he has “the ability to be patient.” He said he hasn’t sold any stocks and doesn’t plan to for the time being.

Two months from now, when companies report their first quarterly results under the new tax plan, “earnings will likely be higher and the market could come back up to even higher levels,” he said. — Daysi Calavia-Robertson

‘It can be scary’

Southampton resident Logan Robinson, 28, a client of Craig James Financial Services since 2016, said he’s not concerned about the stock market fall.

“When you see the points drop and . . . your stock prices dwindling it can be scary, but it really isn’t something I’m worried about just because I’m in it for the long haul,” said Robinson, an elementary school teacher.

The market has to compensate for all of the drastic changes that have occurred, he said. “Maybe we’re coming to the end of this bull market.”

Historically, the market has gone through this type of “reset” before, Robinson said. “And usually, when it does, it rises farther than it did before.” — Tory N. Parrish