David Karp/Associated PressElizabeth Rose, a specialist with Lehman Brothers MarketMakers, works her post on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday. A stunning reshaping of the Wall Street landscape sent stocks down sharply Monday, but the pullback appeared relatively orderly " perhaps because investors weren't surprised by the demise of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and relieved by a takeover of Merrill Lynch & Co.
Carson City doesn't have any Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch or AIG offices, but the current stock market could leave some local investors nervous.
But panicking and pulling out investments, said Alex Andreasen of Andreasen Wealth Management in Carson City, is the worst thing someone could do right now.
The market will get back on track soon, he said, and investors should put the current situation in perspective.
"It's kind of an overdue cleansing of the financial institutions that have been so out of whack and out of control," he said. "It's been unprecedented how they've been so out of control and it was just a matter of time until this would happen."
In the meantime, investors might want to look at companies that pay fixed dividends, he said, especially in strong sectors like technology.
People often panic during a slow economy and re-invest during good times, but that leaves them selling low and buying high " the opposite of what they want to do, he said.
Scott Euart, branch manager of LPL Financial Services in Gardnerville, also said it's good to look at companies that pay fixed dividends, though he warned of investing in financial firms for a while.
It would be wrong to be a "gloom and doomer," however, he said, because the mistakes of some companies shouldn't keep people from investing.