Right now you haven't lost actual dollars, your stock has only lost value. That seems like double speak but you only lose actual dollars if you sell stock at the lower price. You can move money around within the IRA with no tax ramifications such as capital gains, it's only taxed if you take money out of it where it's taxed as regular income. So if you scrap it you've locked in the lost value
and will take a hit on your taxes - double whammy.
What you can do is rebalance the portfolio into something with less risk and more "conservation of principle" but the time to do that was December or January. About the only thing one can do now is to ride this out and when stocks have regained their value then move into a less exposed position.
I definitely feel your pain and about freaked out when I saw how much "value" my IRA lost since January 1st. It was enough to have lived on quite comfortably for 6 or 7 years. However, once I calmed down I had to remind myself of two truisms of the market:
The market goes up and the market goes down, but in the long run the market goes up. Therefore, it's not timing the market that counts, it's time
in the market.
Oh, and you can drink heavily. That helps, too...
