How many of you are getting Slaughtered at the Market?

[Elgin526]

Oh, my mutual fund (all my 401k money) is down 10% or so since I looked last (maybe a month ago). I don't track too closely since I'm 30 years away from retirement.

I'm still up 3.4% year to date, so I guess that's not too bad, but it's painful looking at that lower balance!

I'm changing my contribution level from 3% to 6% starting in July, so I'll take advantage of this bear market and hopfully make some money when the sun comes out again!

[JBinKC]

I have gotten slaughtered since May 10th. Tuesday was by far my worst day in terms dollar amount ever in once day but I know over the long term barring a disasterous event I should continue to do fine.

[VJW]

Originally Posted by jmjj215

That's an impressive list.

It wasn’t when I was doing it.

What's your criteria for selecting?

Very eclectic.

The ‘Whole Foods’ pick was exactly as 'rexdart' mentioned. It was right out of Peter Lynch’s “buy what you like” strategy. I was in a Whole Foods store and I was impressed and thought, why hasn’t anybody done this already ? I wish I had a Whole Foods near me.

The ‘Novell’ pick was the classic ‘buy on the rumor, sell on the news’ strategy. I’ve been quite familiar with their software over the years, and heard they were looking to merge.

‘Google’ was a slam dunk. It obviously was going to go up, but IPOs usually do well initially and then fade, and then are dependent upon how the company does. So, because I got the opportunity to piggy-back on someone else’s purchase (you had to be a qualified investor), I originally planned on dumping the stock after the initial price spike. It just kept going.

With ‘Convera’, I know someone who is close to the company. No insider information, just LOTS of information. For example, it’s not well known, but publicly available, that a certain billionaire has purchased a sizable, albeit minority, chunk of the company. The rest happened as I already related.

Of course, the best move I made was side-stepping the last (almost) six years of broad down markets.

Do you have any losers as well?

Believe it or not, not lately.

The last time something really went South on me was before 2001, when I was in a high-yield junk bond fund from a mutual fund that no longer exists. It declined slightly, but I assumed it would snap back. It declined further, but I thought it HAD to come back. It tanked and I finally got out. Now, most of it was a loss of profits, and I only took a small net loss, but I learned a very valuable lesson. I now always practice stop-loss techniques, whether mechanical or self-imposed.

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[JBinKC]

VJW how many stocks are in your portfolio. My portfolio usually varies between 30-70 stocks and it consists mainly smaller companies that either has a grossly undervalued asset(s) or a very low PEG ratio. At this moment a large percentage of my money is in Canadian equities. Right now my largest holding is Caspian Energy, CEK on the Toronto exchange.

[Duchesse]

Diversification is the only thing that has helped me to sleep. I am and have always been very leery of the stock market. my stock portolio is less than 20% of my total available cash . My property values have increased. The stock market is scary/risky, NEVER invest more than you can lose.

[Duchesse]

Originally Posted by Sweepsplayer

Yup, down here too. Anyone who isn't down in the last month is (a) hiding in a bunker (CDs), (b) damn lucky, or (c) lying.

Although I do have some stocks that have gone down, I haven't loss very much because I'm in that bunker Sweeps. Thanks, again!

[VJW]

Originally Posted by JBinKC

VJW how many stocks are in your portfolio.

Since I sold several in late January, I’m down below ten.

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[Russell]

VJW, are you buying and selling outside of your retirement accounts ? If so, are the short-term-gain taxes a concern at all ?

So far I've invested in my retirement accounts only but my options are limited in what I can buy. I setup a brokerage account with Scottrade but haven't bought anything due to not clearly understanding how hard I'll be hit by the taxes.

[VJW]

Yes, some of the trades are outside of my restricted accounts, but because of an arrangement I have, it really doesn’t matter either way, for now.

As to taxes, generally you can expect to pay 5% (5% & 10% brackets) or 15% (25%, 28%, 33%, & 35% brackets) on stocks held for more than a year, and anything less than a year would be taxed as ordinary income (5%, 10%, 25%, 28%, 33%, & 35%).

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[CRFSaver]

I havent taken a beating per se, I am still up for the year but not by much. My best performing equity has been Capital One. While I am just holding it for the time being, it has been in a range for a few month yet hasnt dipped below 80 for a while. I used to work for the company so I have a good insight on the company. My Merrill Lynch stock (which is in one my 401k's) had performed quite good this year as well but return has gone to zero for the year. Should go back up. For yields though, can't beat NFI. Everyone hates it but they used to be a customer of mine and 18% yield is not bad. Should get out soon though...

[ms_businesswoman]

My Roth IRA at Fidelity is down, but I am young and not too worried right now

[cschin4]

I own mostly assorted mutual funds. Most have been up and down. They are lower than they were but I am making steady progress and overall they are up. I also some a few individual stocks and have thought of investing more into those vs. funds. I also have a build up of cash in one account in a money market because i haven't made up my mind as to what to do with it yet.