Are you selling even though everything is low? Are you going towards accounts/CD’s?

Or are you hunkering down and waiting it out?
I wonder what people are doing in light of our financial market pickle.
I am not doing anything in this pickle. I just watch and frown.

 

  • Mark L 6:31 pm on August 25, 2010

    I have been watching this market unravel since last year. There is too much debt in our economy and government and we can no longer service it. There are problems with housing, credit cards, auto loans, student loans and states and municipal debts and of course the Federal govt. Corporations are actually in better shape.

    To me there is nothing to turn the oncoming recession around. There is simply too much debt that cannot be repaid. I was hoping to get one more bounce up either on the bailout passage or a rate cut by the Fed and then I am going to sell most of my mutual funds in my 401k. Luckily I have some gains, but I have seen the evaporate. I still have a few very high paying dividend stocks that I am too far down to sell and I believe the dividends are still secure. Many of these are energy related. I still think energy will stay relatively high because of global demand, plus we still have to drive everywhere. But I am considering selling almost everything else because all of the funds have to sell even the best stocks to get money to pay to those holders who are cashing out of their mutual funds. I’ve tried to hunker down and wait it out, but I still believe that there are significant risks to the downside. Things I read say that the market could go down to the 700 level on the S&P and 8000 on the Dow. That would be ugly. If the Fed pulled out all of these stops with all of these lending facilities and it still didn’t stop this great selloff, what makes you think the bailout will work. The bailout may help liquidity but it won’t make the subprime homeowners or the pay option ARM holders with 1% loans that are now resetting to double their payment better able to pay their loans. And the banks never lead the country out of a recession.

    I think many people are staying in. The investment advisors have a vested interest in telling people to remain invested because they only get paid if you keep your money in. They would get fired if they told everyone to sell now. If all of these risks of bad debt were so well known last year, why didn’t you hear them advising us to sell when the market was at the top?
    Most advisors were not around at the great depression so they have no idea how similar times are now to that time. Their only advice is to keep buying lower and lower because they will say that no one can tell when the bottom will be. But ask yourself what is going to stop this market from going down if the economy is getting worse? Why buy now and risk going lower? It seems it is more risky to buy now and see the market go significantly lower than to wait and watch the market go back up. There’s just no way that the market will go back to its highs given the bad state of the economy, at least not for a while.

    We may not go into a depression because there still are some parts of the economy that can function (like health care and defense that is mostly paid by the govt) but we could have a severe recession that lasts for a longer than normal time. Most people won’t realize it until it is too late. There will be plenty of time to buy. The market won’t just bottom one day and then go back up to its former highs overnight. You may not catch the bottom, but better to wait until the economy is really suffering than to buy now and hope that the economy stops going down.

  • mamma_byrd 6:31 pm on August 25, 2010

    Heck no! The last thing you want to do is sell right now. Just hang on for a while. Things will pick back up. You’ll be glad you did.

  • islandmamma 6:31 pm on August 25, 2010

    I don’t have any but didn’t people buy up tons of stocks in the great market crash and then hold em and made tons years and years later? If so wouldn’t this be the time to stock up?

  • HouAnswerGuy 6:31 pm on August 25, 2010

    I have 10 – 15 yrs before I plan to use the money I have invested in stocks (no mutual funds)…so no I am not selling…I am staying with my investment plan and buying even more.

  • beaver 6:31 pm on August 25, 2010

    well i got 4 cds and have stock and a mutual fund and i am holding and still not lost much money

  • Abby G 6:31 pm on August 25, 2010

    I’m hunkering down :o ) and waiting it out. I’m 38 and told that I have time to see the market come back. But I’m totally uncomfortable having any money in the market. I’m not sure my decision is the best.

    What are you doing in this pickle?

  • 27tonone 6:31 pm on August 25, 2010

    not selling but buying the ones on sale !!! lol…. feeling the pain but can’t do anything

  • jwooden21 6:31 pm on August 25, 2010

    I’m buying as much as possible since everything is so cheap! I picked the companies that I think won’t go out of business and bought their stock at really low prices. I invested a lot in index funds since the indexes are also so low. I have some investments in commodities that I also bought at low prices that I’ll sell at their next spike, that’s my only short term strategy. And i have some in ‘riskless’ fixed income so I safe with ’some’ of my money. Now I’m just waiting it out until I get rich, ha. The only way to fail is if a company goes bankrupt, or rather if I’m not diversified, or if the entire US economy fails, which I doubt will ever happpen. Staying away from CD’s cause they have poor returns and short terms.

  • Common Sense 6:31 pm on August 25, 2010

    No…… I’ve got a well thought out "asset allocation" that has gone down…. but nearly like the rest of the market. I am now dollar cost averaging more funds into it… over the next year.

  • Bobo 6:31 pm on August 25, 2010

    Well that depends on whether you think this is the bottom.

    I think we’re just getting started, but that’s just me. Market is still pricing in the Q3 bad numbers and the horrid unemployment/auto sales numbers. If we see bloody earnings, I think we could see more excitement. But one thing is for sure, we will see crazy volatility until at least the short-ban is over on Oct. 8. Compared to 1929, 1987, 2001, we have a LOT of room to fall. One thing is for sure, we live in interesting times.

    I just can’t get over that we are lower than when the House turned down the bailout the first time and that record drop. Makes you go hmmmmm… market no likey bailouts?

  • annalyzedgourds 6:31 pm on August 25, 2010

    I chose to hunker down and wait it out. I’m in it for the long haul. I don’t even frown anymore:)

  • Jo 6:31 pm on August 25, 2010

    I went out of stocks the other week. And now will go into
    http://www.100K-FX.com as I learned they made still over 16% in Sept.

  • dgxkeyboardist 6:31 pm on August 25, 2010

    I’m hunkering down. However, I am waiting until there is a complete chorus of naysayers out there who think that putting money in stocks is a complete waste then I’ll make my next move. So pundits and prognosticators of doom please spin away