Sad day, the poor stock market.

[Zach]

Maybe it's time for me to finally give up and liquidate all of my tech funds. I have two Etrade accounts, one's down $3,387 from it's worth of about $10,000 when I opened it 1.5yrs ago, and the other is $3,350 in the red from $6,000. Ironic that I bought funds that, according to Morningstar, were average risk in the first and high in the second, they all lost big time.

What to do. CD's maybe. I should transfer all the money to my Maryl Lynch account I guess, someone's there to baby it at least. Leaving it all alone sure hasn't worked. Was I stupid for investing like that? Not at the time I hope, but I should have sold off and moved them to blue chips or something a long time ago, eh?

 

[iamwiz82]

stick with the stock market, it is not like all stocks are never going to recover.

 

[Tauren]

Don't forget, you could ride it out. You only lose the money when you sell.

 

[Zach]

I don't make money every year, I have college to pay for.. it's very tough to not sell some of it, but so bad!

I have to figutre out if tech will recover, if not what might recover, if it all gets better what will do it fastest.. too much for me!

 

[wyvrn]

Don't sell. You will guarantee yourself a loss. Stick with it until the tech stocks swing back up, you at least break even, then invest your money in a solid mutual fund family. There you will have some stability, solid growth, and the downturns of the market won't effect you as much.

CD's are stable but just keep up with inflation. Not a great investment there unless this money needs to be very very liquid. But if you are dealing with short-term dollars, you should never have invested in the stock market in the first place.

Don't worry, over time, the market always goes upward Just diversify.

 

[Zach]

How long until tech starts going up again? Eek.

 

[Hamburgerpimp]

It's gonnna get worse, a lot worse. Sell your stocks now, put them in a MM and reinvest when there is a significant correction. I went 100% liquid in August of last year. JMHO!

 

[poop]

Knowing when to reinvest is the hard part, eh?

It is the attitude that the market is going to fall that makes it fall. The market is 70% confience, 20% luck, and 10% actual value.

 

Short term dollars do not work in the market.
High risk if you are doing that, and your learning the hard way.
Take the loss now, or wait for a bigger loss, or just hold on tight until things take on the upturn of the synewave of life.

 

[thebestMAX]

Hindsight is 20/20.

If I knew what was going to happen I would have gone to cash 15 months ago.

Now is a little late. Stay the course, most of your loses have PROBABLY already happened.

I usually put my money where my mouth is. I BOUGHT today at 3 pm.

 

[bcterps]

Well I wouldnt say that you were stupid in investing those funds, but you could have used some better financial advice if you need the money now. For someone investing for the short term (2 years is definitely short term), your portfolio should have been much more liquid. I personally wouldnt put anything in the market that I couldnt leave there for at least 5 years.

--Ben

 

[Eug]

When my friends start talking heavily about mutual funds (ie. when the market has been hot for a while), I either sell or else hold on and get very worried. When my friends sell (ie. when the market is crap), that's when I buy.

Now, or soon will be a great time to BUY.

 

[BigSmooth]

Today wasn't much better. Dow is at 9720, I think the NASDAQ is at a buck-oh five or so.

 

[Athanasius]

Two years ago, my father passed away and I received a small inheritance. The stock market was flirting with the 11K mark.

All the financial analysts were giving me all of these reasons why I should invest in the stock market. Basically, it was summed up like this: "Market forces have been set in motion in a way that help insure continued growth in the stock market until the baby boomers start to retire in 2008 or so."

Well, I wasn't comfortable with that. I have a wife, four kids, and a hefty mortgage. Plus, I don't care much about being rich. So, I took the safe way out and threw the money at my mortgage. Now, I am in effect earning a guaranteed 7.25% (my mortgage rate) and may own my house free and clear by age 40, almost certainly by 45 (unless the economy really implodes).

I feel pretty good about that choice now. Even if the stock market and tech stocks were flourishing, it wouldn't be like I really lost anything. Gamblers maxim: get your money off the table before you start taking big risks.

You can only gamble what you can truly afford to lose.

 

[jorken]

plunge baby plunge!

 

[seewhy]

If you need the money in your fund the next year or year and half, you should probably sell your holdings. Tech stock is not going to recover anytime soon. CD isn't gonna give you a lot of return when Fed is lowering the interest rate like crazy these days, but it is still safer then stock market for now.

Don't feel bad about lossing your money, I mean everyone knows the market is overpriced since 4 years ago, but it just happen that everything suddenly turned ugly at the same time. I mean, worst winter in decades, uncertain president election, high energy prices, low tech spending cycle, the list go on and on. Everyone including those top analyst in Wall St. didn't see that coming....except Warrent Buffet (That's why he is god of investment)

But if you don't need the money right now, stock market always recovers. You just have to be careful about the stock you buy, as long as the company has a good business model and can stay in business for the long term, you will be ok.

 

[BigSmooth]

Good God, it's just getting worse... Dow is off another 250 today already!

 

[Ferocious]

The market will probably drop another 10% before slowly rebounding over the next several years.

It should accelerate it's recovery once we get a legit President in the White House. Or if we're lucky maybe next fall if and when the Democrats take over the Senate and/or House which would provide certain gridlock.

 

[BigSmooth]

Ferocious, you may be right, I never thought the Dow would go back down to the mid-8000's but just about every sector is biting it. Dow is off 320 now.