The rich are about to get a massive tax cut. They cannot possibly spend all those savings on things like food or consumer goods. So where does it go? Assets: Housing, more stocks, antiquities. Any truly rich person will have a diversified portfolio of assets. So what if some of their stocks go down temporarily? They will go back up eventually and the rich can afford to wait out much longer than any normal peon. Its not even a nefarious thing either. If anyone were in their position it would be the prudent thing to do. The most important thing is they have to put this money into something now before it erodes. Buy up all the stocks, buy up all the land, buy up all the vintage collector items, hell even buy up all the retro video games, just do it now.
It's more concentrated than you give it credit: the wealthy overwhelmingly hold their money in business capital (read: stocks) not housing. Housing is predominantly owned by the middle class. Having stocks go up and down is what mostly changes the ultra-rich wealth, and in this case they're going down.
wouldn't a drop in equities be the worst thing for them then? That'd trigger a margin call and liquidation; at the very least, they can do that without the shares falling.
You're implicitly saying that they have an enormous if not cash position then leverage capacity that they're holding out on with the opportunity to buy more shares. In which case I challenge you: tell me where! I see tons of evidence of rich people completely shifted to risky risky equities (accredited investments have many attractions, one of them is not risk / 'volatility' (depending on your definition, see matt levine for details)!).
