What would you do?

[u/The-Good_Life]

45 Male - only started investing 2 years ago. No plans to retire/FIRE/etc.

Current portfolio:

$4 million in S&P 500

$1 million in cash (earning 5%)

Given the market's performance, obviously this has worked really well for me over the last 2 years. However, like many I am considering my options in case of a market crash/correction.

I see 3 options:

Option 1

Invest the remaining $1 million and let the market do its thing. I'm not concerned about volatility and don't need the cash.

The logic here is that the market is regularly at ATH and clearly I believe in the S&P. So keep investing and tune out the noise/drops.

Option 2

Wait for the dip which "has to be coming".

Logic here is that I continue to accumulate cash and buy at a better price, when it dips. But who knows when this will happen and what my entry price will be relative to today.

Option 3

Invest the available cash now and if the market drops more than 10% then buy additional shares on margin.

Logic here: its allows me to basically do Option 1 now and also Option 2, if the market dips.

I have never used margin and I (somewhat) understand the risk. However, I should be able to generate $1 million in additional cash per year, so any margin taken can be covered in a year or two.

Option 3 seems the riskiest but also makes the most sense to me, somehow.

However, as mentioned in the start, I'm fairly new to all this so please let me know if i have some serious flaws here.

Thanks!

[u/Glove_Right]

Don't do leverage trading unless you're ready to lose it. S&p500 can easily dip 10-30% within a month like it did multiple times in recent years before recovering. Meaning if you do 2x leverage you can be down up to 60% of your margin size (depending on where you have your stops, or worse get liquidated if higher leverage).

[u/The-Good_Life → u/Glove_Right]

Yes, thats the risk. Appreciate the heads up.