you won't lose anything if you hold & the mkts come back up.
you might lose some dividends. if a company can't make enough profits to cover them they may cut them.
this week i had an oil company cut it's dividend in half b/c the price of oil is so low.

Depends on how things are set up . As I understand it , some are treated in much the same way as you making payments on your real estate (home) . In other cases , the dividends are voted on by the board of directors based on profits from the preceding period . At a predesignated time , accounting puts together charts , papers , etc , showing the board of directors profit earned for the previous period , what they expect things cost to manufacture , advertise , distribute the following year , anticipated costs for the coming year for wages and the golden parachutes , if they become necessary , taxes , costs for buying a smaller competitive company , costs for expansion , etc , and how much to put aside for future unexpected costs . They decide how much is available for the investors and divide the amount up per share . As far as the value of your investments go , the value of things and money both vary . Right now , the coronavirus , can affect a LOT of products , because of the things China provides . For instance , a lot of rare earth metals are mined in China . Investors are concerned that things made of those rare metals ( computer chips for instance ) and are very uncomfortable about the availability of those rare minerals . Can't get the metals , can't supply the computers . Profits go down . Want to make some money , buy their stock while the market is down , sell them when they go back up in value , assuming the company hasn't gone out of business in the mean time . Hope this helps , hon !