agip wrote:
that 5% is from the day you started the thread.
here, look, here is what I said:
"Since the OP began this thread, the dow is up 5.0% exactly."
First off, you are purposefully mixing up what I sold at -- which is germane -- to when I started the thread -- which is not.
Secondly, the Dow was at 14,850 when I posted (and was to fall another 90 or so that day). 14,850 to 15,539 is 4.64%. You claim exactly 5.00% -- thus both overstating and lying about the accuracy of your number.
It may be that it will turn out to be a bad move getting out at the end of June. To date, it has cost me maybe $25k -- minus the few thousand I have made on the bond fund I bought to replace some of the monies I pulled. We will see what the future brings (I am not going back in at this point)
The again, getting out when I did in 2008 saved me @ $300k.
You, of course, don't take that into account when pointing at the past 3 plus months as definitive proof that it is never wise to play hunches and pull back from the market.
Your philosophy is that one should be in the market at all times as it has shown the greatest return over the past 50 years. On that theory, one should be 100% in equities at all time.
For me, the market is a gamble, a lottery over which we have no control. I would avoid it completely were it not for the fact that those Zion*sts at the Fed have lowered interest so much that we get no return for cash and other products that historically have given us 5% or more.
I can control my business to some extent and my spending completely. These are what I focus on. I don't want to risk too much of my financial future on a lottery where I am not the inside player. If I never again invest a dime in the equities market, I should still (assuming continued good health) have well more than enuff saved within five years to live comfortably and never have to work again.