Ghost of Igloi wrote:
“I just know the market goes up ~73% of the time on a yearly basis and that the overall trend is up.”
That is such a simplistic comment. Treasury Bills outperformed the S&P 500 from May 1995 through March 2009. And there are multiple stretches of similar underperformance of stocks versus bonds going back further in US financial history. Now on any given day what you say is true, but that is hardly a statistic that is at all meaningful. Perhaps fine for someone just starting investing, but poor advice today for you, or any other person that has accumulated significant wealth, retired or even is close to retirement.
Igy - you are cherry picking again. Why did you pick May 1995 and March 2009? Oh, now I know! Just look at this chart and it is very clear why you picked those two dates.