European stocks tumble, bonds rally after Trump proposes 50% EU tariff

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. The first thing to know is that early in a move nobody knows how big a move it is.

Those who have a reasonable understanding of the financial markets know:

1) Nobody knows with any finality.

2) About the best one can do is make a good guess as to the general direction of short, intermediate, and long term trends.

3) The best thing to know is that even the smartest market wizards are constantly surprised by market events and so diversification and some defensive structuring of portfolios is a good idea.