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Like fishermen boasting about their catch -- which becomes bigger with each retelling -- investors like to tell tall tales from their investing adventures. With a bear market of historic proportions either getting over or going to get worse, I'll bet that there are a lot of interesting yarns that can be spun.
I'll kick off with how I fortuitously avoided some real stinkers by just moving from individual stocks to broad-market index funds around the late 2007 / early 2008 time frame. To qualify, I exclude any stock that is down by a comparable amount to the broad market.
AIG - sold at $54. Now $1.45.
GE - sold at $34. Now $12.
E*Trade - sold at $24. Now $2.40.
What about you? Maybe you moved to cash or fixed income and side-stepped the decline. Or you shorted Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers or any of the other train wrecks. Or you were unfortunate enough to enthusiastically buy some banks (lest you think highly of my market timing skills, I bought BMO). Over to you now...
I'll kick off with how I fortuitously avoided some real stinkers by just moving from individual stocks to broad-market index funds around the late 2007 / early 2008 time frame. To qualify, I exclude any stock that is down by a comparable amount to the broad market.
AIG - sold at $54. Now $1.45.
GE - sold at $34. Now $12.
E*Trade - sold at $24. Now $2.40.
What about you? Maybe you moved to cash or fixed income and side-stepped the decline. Or you shorted Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers or any of the other train wrecks. Or you were unfortunate enough to enthusiastically buy some banks (lest you think highly of my market timing skills, I bought BMO). Over to you now...