You are supposed to sell when it's HIGH

@Qaeyious (2357)
United States
October 11, 2008 9:48pm CST
My 401k was $110K about two years ago. That was when I cashed my stock options to buy an updated computer, pay off my credit cards, and put the rest in money market. I see I should have waited a bit before making contributions to my Roth IRA, but c'est la vie. I made a minimal investment in conservative funds seeing that the prices were wavering even then, and since I'm 50, I thought that was the time to make my 401k more moderate. It is now at $95K. It is still a profit with the over ten years of contributions, so I am still not worried. Yes, it is over $15K that is no longer there from two years ago, but this is a long term investment - I don't expect to start using it until I'm at least 70 - and who knows what would have happened at that point. So why are so many people selling now? It was obvious something was up months ago, and I am glad I caught it in time much sooner, but now - if you sell securities at a lower price, you guarantee the loss, no chance of recuperating. So in the past few days I put a few thousand on a few mutual funds (my favorite vehicle, diversification built in, just choose the one with the lowest expense ratio). Since I chose those where stocks were a major portion of course their price have been going down, some like a stone. Still the prices are great now - just enough people have to start buying again at these low Wall-Street (as opposed to Wall-Mart (attempted humor there)) prices It's not up to Mr. Bush. He will only screw things up. It is up to us who have the guts to take the chance.
2 responses
@Fafner (68)
• United States
23 Oct 08
Its a well known indicator of a market bottom when retail investors sell. Since mutual fund redemptions were very high in the last two weeks, I think it is safe to say the average investor once again has decided to sell at the low. Value investors lead the way out of bear markets. Its going to take time, but I expect the U.S. stock market to start looking better sometime around the end of 2009.
1 person likes this
@brian_s (570)
• United States
18 Dec 08
I watch the charts, and I am only starting to buy now. I need to see that the price stops making new lows. Right now, it looks like the market has failed to make new lows, and that it actually is starting to make new highs again. I have no idea if this will continue, but that's why I have stop losses in place. I sold after the initial dip, and I saved a few thousand dollars that way. But now I do think is the right time to be shopping for bargains for the long term investor, and looking for fast moving stocks for the shorter term trader.