Mutual fund investors. (getting out today?)

[Ferocious]

Moreso with non-retirement fund investors.

The market has been good this year for fund investors overall. But with related expenses and concerns....do you plan on getting out today or very soon? And do you plan on jumping back into the market next month or next year sometime?

I'm seriously thinking about bailing out today if the market goes way up....and then jump back in after 30 days or so.

I'd really like to see Dow at 10200 and Nasdaq at 2000 before temporarily jumping ship though. 😕

 

[FeathersMcGraw]

I don't time the market.

 

[Ferocious]

Originally posted by: FeathersMcGraw
I don't time the market.

Quite wise actually.

You probably do better than most of us who do.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: Ferocious

Originally posted by: FeathersMcGraw
I don't time the market.

Quite wise actually.

You probably do better than most of us who do.

I've no doubt that if feathersmcgraw doesn't time the market and all but ignores anything going on in the stock market he does better than most. In many ways the more effort you put into planning and timing the worse you'll do. Most professional investors cannot even match the market, let alone beat it. My take is: Unless you know something is comnig along that nobody else does (which is called insider trading and quite illegal!) don't play guessing games.

 

[Blieb]

I got out over a year ago ... 2 months ago, I got back in.

You can't play the game based on 30 day increments.

Every trade should ideally have an anticipated hold period (1-3yrs, 3yrs+) ... but, you could also say, "well, I bought at 35, and if it goes up to 50 then I just HAVE to sell" ... OR, you could only sell what you put in, if it goes up THAT much.

 

[FeathersMcGraw]

Originally posted by: Ferocious

Originally posted by: FeathersMcGraw
I don't time the market.

Quite wise actually.

You probably do better than most of us who do.

It's probably less wisdom than laziness. I don't have the exact statistic, but I've heard that a majority (at least) of the actively managed funds out there today don't beat the S&P 500. Scandals of dishonesty and/or incompetence aside, if people who work in the industry and devote their full time and effort to producing wealth from the market can't do it on a regular basis, how could I in the hour or two of free time a day I have that I'd much rather be using to play video games?

Then again, I'll never be rich either, but my goal is comfort with emergency savings, not to be a millionaire vit a mansion unt a yacht.

 

[StageLeft]

if people who work in the industry and devote their full time and effort to producing wealth from the market can't do it on a regular basis, how could I in the hour or two of free time a day I have that I'd much rather be using to play video games?

That's exactly why playing the stock market and individual stocks for 99% of people is nothing more than money wasted. Less effort gives you better results in this area!

 

I don't have anything invested in the stock market or in mutual funds, but my parents have much of their retirement savings in market accounts. They turned an initial investment of just over $10,000 into something like $300,000 with monthly contributions and just plain ignorance. They couldn't pay any less attention to the stock market; all they do is see the DJIA on the news every night. Timing the market is a bad idea, I feel, since it's the long run that counts. If you don't need the money right now, then just stay put.

 

[FoBoT]

my mutual funds are through my 401(k) , so they will stay the way they are for the foreseeable future, no changes

 

[FeathersMcGraw]

Originally posted by: Blieb
I got out over a year ago ... 2 months ago, I got back in.

That's nicely illustrative of why market timing is a losing strategy for most. If you look at the DJIA for the year, you missed out on most of the recovery to date by staying on the sidelines until two months ago (the general up trend looks to have started around March).

I held all my positions since, maybe, 1999 or so (and took a wicked beating for doing so, but they've all recovered since then and the only thing I've lost is time). However, by regularly adding to my positions during that period (and I mean regularly -- every month, regardless of what the market is doing), I picked up a lot of shares of my mutual funds while they were getting beaten down and now my portfolio is appreciating even faster than if I'd just held my positions, and certainly better than if I'd cut my losses and run and realizing a loss while doing it.

 

[woodie1]

I buy and hold mutual funds for the long term.

 

[Ferocious]

Thanks for the seemingly sound advice.

The market is up a bit but I thought the market might takes off big time with the capture of Saddam.....but apparantly it's being offset by other events and some weaker than expected economic news.

Oh well I will just stay put and forget about it for awhile.

 

[Blieb]

Originally posted by: FeathersMcGraw

Originally posted by: Blieb
I got out over a year ago ... 2 months ago, I got back in.

That's nicely illustrative of why market timing is a losing strategy for most. If you look at the DJIA for the year, you missed out on most of the recovery to date by staying on the sidelines until two months ago (the general up trend looks to have started around March).

I held all my positions since, maybe, 1999 or so (and took a wicked beating for doing so, but they've all recovered since then and the only thing I've lost is time). However, by regularly adding to my positions during that period (and I mean regularly -- every month, regardless of what the market is doing), I picked up a lot of shares of my mutual funds while they were getting beaten down and now my portfolio is appreciating even faster than if I'd just held my positions, and certainly better than if I'd cut my losses and run and realizing a loss while doing it.

You said it! I also needed the money more liquid ... but now that I'm back in the swing of things, I'm going to start building a portfolio and will let it weather anything the future brings ...

 

[dxkj]

my problem is I put 6k in, (all my savings from a summer job), and then it went down to 2500..... at that point if i could have bought more i would be ahead now, but unfortunately i had no moeny to put in.....