I must be crazy!!

[creditcardfree]

I just stayed put!

Me too!

[m3racer]

Interesting to read this thread in retrospect. I'm curious with those who got out of the market. Did you get back in in time? It sure shot up fast.

Best investing move I've made. My only regret was not placing even more $$ into the market at that time. I still think it's a great time to buy.

[Broken Arrow]

Truth to tell, I'm completely clueless about where the market is headed next. Well, more clueless than usual.

Well, I'm fairly certain that "big money" has already packed up and left for the holidays. If you look at the past three months, you'll see a set of predictable arches, signaling buys by passive investments.

However, overall trading volume has been slowly but surely increasing the entire time, signaling a warming of the waters and people are dipping back in, flattening in just the past month.

For market timers and traders, this is sort of... expected. However, 2010 is what's going to be interesting.

For now, I'm completely out of my trading. In fact, I even locked in a large portion of it into bonds. Why? Because I strongly believe that we've been riding most of this year on a large liquidity bubble. In other words, while I have full confidence that the US market will recover, I don't think it is currently recovering for the right reasons....

Regardless of my predictions though, I needed to do that anyways in order to maintain my asset allocation due to the gains. Besides, there's nothing wrong with locking in some of that ill-gotten gains and have it pay 5% dividends eh?

I'm done for the year though. Will reload in 2010 if all goes well.... Passive investments continue on as before.

[Saving_spree]

I used to buy a lot earlier, now drastically come down…

[Slug]

I maxed my 401k a month early this year so I'm currently on hold. I was a very aggressive buyer earlier in the year. Now, it's just tougher to find bargains. My Roths are heavier in cash right now than usual due to this reason. I'll be back in full steam in 2010 though.

[Mantaray14]

I pulled my 401 out of stocks in Aug 2008 after watching Robert Shiller on The Bill Moyers Show warning about the collapse. The DOW was around 11k even though I had my stocks well allocated all over the spectrum. My 401k has been in the MM ever since so I missed the run up but I did not lose anything either. I hate to be contrarian, but I do not see where the real driver for future market returns will be (other than the China story, if you believe in their fiscal soundness). I, like every other little guy, am at loss at what to do. If the DOW hit 14k on "your house is an ATM economy", and people getting credit for cars and things when they were already way in over their head, where should the market be now and over the next 5-10 years? As much as I want to put the money back in, I can't stop asking these questions. Today, I moved my allocation into some Vanguard Bond funds. That's the best I came come up with for now!

Thanks,

Rick

[Beppington]

A little off topic....how much do you guys have allocated to international funds? My 401k portfolio has about 30% in international funds. I'm thinking about changing that to 20%. I'm not sure how Orman came up with this % in her new book.

40% for me. Economic markets are global now.

A 5-year chart shows how closely Vanguard's 500 Index fund (symbol VFINX) & Vanguard's International Value fund (Symbol VTRIX) track each other: Click here

[Beppington]

I pulled my 401 out of stocks in Aug 2008 after watching Robert Shiller on The Bill Moyers Show warning about the collapse. The DOW was around 11k even though I had my stocks well allocated all over the spectrum. My 401k has been in the MM ever since so I missed the run up but I did not lose anything either. I hate to be contrarian, but I do not see where the real driver for future market returns will be (other than the China story, if you believe in their fiscal soundness). I, like every other little guy, am at loss at what to do. If the DOW hit 14k on "your house is an ATM economy", and people getting credit for cars and things when they were already way in over their head, where should the market be now and over the next 5-10 years? As much as I want to put the money back in, I can't stop asking these questions. Today, I moved my allocation into some Vanguard Bond funds. That's the best I came come up with for now!

Thanks,

Rick

Will you be able to identify when things are "corrected" enough that the markets rise again (or at least stable enough to suit you)? You might be too late when you realize it. Even if you miss a move from Dow 10K to 11K you've missed a significant 10% gain. And, even then, you might decide, "OK, the Dow's risen from 10K to 11K, all's good, I'm back in ... then it drops to 10K again, so you not only missed the 10% run up but also compounded it getting in for the 9% drop."

There are always people warning that the end of the world is near. If it comes, does it matter that some of your money was in the stock market?

I think the only valid reason to not continue investing in stocks/ mutual funds is if you think the markets are never ever going up again.

I stuck to my investment plan since August 2005 & I'm just about back to even.

[Mantaray14]

Will you be able to identify when things are "corrected" enough that the markets rise again (or at least stable enough to suit you)? You might be too late when you realize it. Even if you miss a move from Dow 10K to 11K you've missed a significant 10% gain. And, even then, you might decide, "OK, the Dow's risen from 10K to 11K, all's good, I'm back in ... then it drops to 10K again, so you not only missed the 10% run up but also compounded it getting in for the 9% drop."

There are always people warning that the end of the world is near. If it comes, does it matter that some of your money was in the stock market?

I think the only valid reason to not continue investing in stocks/ mutual funds is if you think the markets are never ever going up again.

I stuck to my investment plan since August 2005 & I'm just about back to even.

I'm not trying to time the market - I've done steady DCA for the last 12 years or more. It's more about values and the moral hazard that got us into this mess, and then was further sanctioned to get us out so quickly. Just like you cannot grow crops if you trash your land, I cannot see how properity can grow out of this situation as it is. I don't think the market will never go up again, but after the great depression, it took 20 years to get back, and there were some hard earned lessons learned, because my father ( a child of the depression), still preaches them to me today. It seems to me, all we have learned this time, is how to pull one more rabbit from the hat.

If I ever put my money back in stocks, I'll do it when it feels right to me. Just be aware, the recovery is already priced in, so I consider it closer to gambling than investing.

[gambler2075]

We all know the market is tanking but I can't keep myself from buying more shares. I've been snatching more shares of the Vanguard total stock market index fund this week. I hear everyone on TV saying don't put anymore $$$ in the market. Run for the hills. Oh well....it's only money...LOL

Beautifully timed buy there, pardner... reminds me of why I am a contrarian.

g