I’m playing the “Magnificent Seven”. Don’t own one share. All options. I’ve been rolling out and sometimes up or down, depending, for months. Defined risk.
Waiting in 2008/2009 was a much better strategy for most then trying to time the bottom. Same lesson applies to 2022. This site was full of traders shorting the bottom last year; there was never a clear buy signal at the bottom(s) just guys like me saying it looked like a bottom. If investors listen to the media, various financial "experts", and day traders, it would have cost them money longer term. 5 year performance : TSX +19%, AGF.b +7%, CIX -39%, IGM +3% I suspect the weaker "mutual fund" players got crushed but some did ok by picking up business from others. Perhaps the one year data shows that many investors have been buying off the 2022 bottom which isn't a bad thing.
My strategy started to take me out of the market in late 2007, same thing in late 2019. I'll admit I never got a buy signal at the bottom, nor did I expect to. I slowly got back in when a new trend was established. Where are you getting your 5 year performance? I use stockcharts.com perf charts and come up with very different numbers. I use XIC for the market and compare it to the fund companies and come up number quite different than yours. (CIX is a dog)
Perhaps more interesting than the lead article in this thread is that 40% of retirees rely on Social Security alone! These are folks who live their lives with very little disposable income. Without disposable income their is very little opportunity. Think about that.