Stock rally back towards break-even for the week

After a whole lot of volatility this week and today, stocks are attempting to rally back to break-even or perhaps a positive finish to the week.  We are trading at 1,188 on the S&P 500 right now, and with a close last week of 1,200, we are down about 1% for the week at the moment.  In other words, we only need 12 more points to get back to break-even for the week.  This result shows first that there are buyers, and second that long-term investors need to look at the big picture and remain calm during times of uncertainty.  More importantly, they need to have a well thought-out strategy in place so that they can take advantage of drops in the market to add to positions, and to buy quality names at good prices.  This is exactly what I did over the last week for my clients.