How Low Can it Go?
I did a post recently about the market dive and trying to decide whether to put cash into the market and when to do it. Since then I've been watching the market go further and further down.
The DJIA was 12,501.11 on January 15 of this year. As I type, it is 8,271.38 and falling. It's down 34.48% year to date.
I've made lots of money mistakes over the years; but, being out of the market has not been one of them. I have difficulty imagining how people that were/are fully invested in stocks are feeling right now.
I guess I'll just keep watching.
4 comments:
Remember the Beanie Baby craze a few years back? Those little dolls probably only had a bucks worth of fabric and fluff in them, but people were paying hundreds of dollars apiece. The only thing that made them valuable was that everybody wanted the same doll.
Now you can't hardly give those things away. Nobody wants one.
I kind of think that's what has happened with stocks. Everybody wanted the same ones for a while, and suddenly people realized that these little scraps of paper really aren't all that great. Now nobody wants them.
On to the next craze...
For a long time I was worried I was not Stock market savvy! I read a few books and tried to become interested and purchase a few, but never got around to it.
I guess not being a Stock Market diva was a good thing for now.
But, I do think I will dapple a little. Why not, when a buck can buy a few shares of IBM or Pepsi I can spare the change. Plus it will sorta be like playing the lottery!(tee hee)
I haven't made any changes in my investing strategy, which is fairly low-brow, consisting of making monthly 401(k) contributions. The only thing that is different (other than the worth of my accounts) is that now I'm buying WAY more shares with my fixed dollar amount.
We've been meaning to convert PDM's "teacher's retirement" thingy into a 423(b) thingy. A down market is probably an excellent time to do this. We are in the same boat as you, not knowing the ideal time to do it and hit the true bottom. I'm not in any hurry to act. I think we are not there yet.
I fear you are right Fermi.
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