Fingers crossed

[spotty_dog]

These last couple of weeks of slides in the stock market were starting to get painful. (Like, in a week and a half we've "lost" more than I could earn in a year if I went back to work! Ouch!) Fingers crossed that this little upswing is the end of the current correction -- but that it lasts just one more day so I can get another big purchase in while stocks are cheap-ish.

How's everyone else's investment plan treating them in this volatile phase?

[scrub-jay]

I have just refused to look. I wish I had money to buy more!

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

Looks like we're down 2-3% over the past week but still up on the year in our retirement accounts which I manage pretty closely.

[ides]

This is precisely why I hate and distrust the stock market completely.

[OrionGrad]

I have just refused to look. I wish I had money to buy more!

Me too.

[ladymoreta]

All we have at this point is 401k, so I have practically no skin in the game. Good luck!!

[MAPPLEBUM]

Yea if we weren't clamping down for interviews and a move we'd been investing

[spotty_dog]

As for having money to buy more, we aren't actually in the habit of timing the market or holding money aside for that purpose. But we lucked out and our usual monthly contribution just happened to post this week...and then I was only brave enough to invest half of it at one time, so hopefully when I do the other half tomorrow I still get a bit of the sale price. And if not, eh. It's still all in the plan!

[fluffhead]

My contrarian bent reads all these posts and screams "short equity futures."

[spotty_dog]

My contrarian bent reads all these posts and screams "short equity futures."

LOL. Your powers of prognostication must be stronger than mine. I just stay the course.

[SoonerTexan]

All I care about is that my
Company's stock stays high enough for me to cash out and get something decent in January.


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[Windsurfer]

I generally stick to stock ETFs (eg buy the whole market, not just one volatile company) and keep at least half of what's invested in strip bonds (eg. I know exactly what each will be worth when it matures). So I only have to panic half as much when the stock market takes a dive -- and then wait untill it eventually recovers. We have a bit in cash that will definitely get invested in a stock ETF when I am sure the market has hit bottom.

[spotty_dog]

I generally stick to stock ETFs (eg buy the whole market, not just one volatile company) and keep at least half of what's invested in strip bonds (eg. I know exactly what each will be worth when it matures). So I only have to panic half as much when the stock market takes a dive -- and then wait untill it eventually recovers. We have a bit in cash that will definitely get invested in a stock ETF when I am sure the market has hit bottom.

Nice, conservative and reasonable strategy. But one point of caution -- knowing the "bottom" is pretty tough even when you're watching the numbers like a hawk. Like...let's say after the summer of 2011 when there were some ugly weeks of trading, it came to mid-September and you told yourself, "I don't think we've really hit bottom. I'll invest when we drop below Dow 11,000 again." Well...you'd still be waiting today, and in the meantime you'd have missed out on a boatload of growth AND four years of dividends.

[Windsurfer]

Nice, conservative and reasonable strategy. But one point of caution -- knowing the "bottom" is pretty tough even when you're watching the numbers like a hawk. Like...let's say after the summer of 2011 when there were some ugly weeks of trading, it came to mid-September and you told yourself, "I don't think we've really hit bottom. I'll invest when we drop below Dow 11,000 again." Well...you'd still be waiting today, and in the meantime you'd have missed out on a boatload of growth AND four years of dividends.

I've been investing long enough to now consider a market correction to be a buy signal - since stocks are more likely to have gone back down below fair market value. I don't try to time the exact bottom, just wait a few days for intra-day volatility to subside. That, combined with strict stock/bond asset allocation, generally means buying low and selling high.

However it does seem a bit unusual for a correction to occur during the summer months. Many expected the market to just drift during the summer until everyone starts paying attention again in September.

[rufflesanddots]

My Roth dropped 10% and we took a hit on another account but are still up overall. We called our Edward Jones guy and had him restructure stuff and get more aggressive given the dip, though. Not sure what my 401K did. Haven't checked, but I'm sure it's down, lol.

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