Joe Gill: Investors seek out high-quality companies in times of huge market stress

For readers who recall the markets after 9/11 in 2001, October 1987, and the Lehman crash in 2008, there’s a sense of deja vu in what happened to stock markets in recent days.

Investing and financing are overseen by companies and managers who work on the assumption of orderly pricing mechanisms. Instead, they faced violent price moves which contributed to a sense of panic. When markets were on the up money poured into assets and on the way down, valuations have slid to historically low levels.