RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:Very Low Volume Today On XBCI think the arrogance and stupidity of assuming that this time the sky really is falling is pretty breathtaking. Just what do you think is going to happen here? Chicken Little, tomorrow is going to be another rough session in a succession of bad days. But there has been plenty of evidence that COVID-19 is not a Spanish Flu type event. First, the overwhelming majority of fatalities have been in individuals over the age of 60 with underlying health conditions; in particular cardiovascular disease. That in itself is quite terrible, but we continually deal with the regular flu and the world doesn't devolve into mayhem every year. In fact, its hard to coax people to even get their flu shot. This most recent flu season is estimated by the CDC to have claimed between 20,000 and 52,000 people in the U.S.A. alone; COVID-19 has claimed 4,630 worldwide at the time of this writing. Further, COVID-19 has shown that it is reasonably contagious in close contact settings such as hospital environments with a basic reproduction number of 2.2. Thats not great for containment and coupled with reports at the infection is possibly communicable before symptoms are present, which typically takes between 3-14 days, it makes for a very scary headline. But luckily for you, I and everyone else on this board there is good emerging evidence to suggest that the vast majority of cases will be very mild. In both Italy and America at the beginning of their respective outbreaks it was speculated that the virus had been circulating for weeks undetected, likely developing in somebody with only mild symptoms as they began to spread it around. Genetic sequencing of the various strains appears to confirm this silent spread. This is very good news because if true and given the fact that we are now nearly 2 weeks post the first reports of infection in Italy with only 12,462 cases and 827 deaths at the time of this writing then COVID-19 is not nearly the intractable problem its being made out to be and much more widespread in the general population. Heres a link youre going to want to refer to for the next few weeks: https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6 Its an interactive map of COVID-19 infections maintained by Johns Hopkins CSSE at JHU. If that number doesnt start climbing quick, like 1 million by the middle of next week at the latest, then that apocalypse youve been salivating for isnt coming. There is going to be an economic drag here, particularly if other countries follow Italys lead and close up shop for a month. Thats going to have serious implications for at least Q1 and likely Q2 across the world. But if you dont see the greater buying opportunity here, both within the larger market and XBC in particular, then youre better off just loading up on toilet paper. Youre going to need a lot to build that fort to repel the hoards of zombies surely shuffling your way. This isnt the bottom ladies and gentlemen and there is a fair bit more pain to come, but lets not lose our heads and eviscerate our neighbors Mad Max style while raving that this is NOTHING like any situation we have EVER seen! Maybe instead our time would be better spent sifting through the wreckage of the markets from the last 3 weeks for good deals that are sure to shine when, not if, the economy recovers and start formulating a game plan on when to take advantage of this plunge. Bonus reading for fun and profit: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK554776/