John Authers, world class reporter at the Financial Times gives us this excellent piece. Read it. And weep for the idiots. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/680b46b0-18a7-11de-bec8-0000779fd2ac.html
Excellent article. The whole idea of 10 years (or even 15 years) being a "long-term" period where stocks will outperform other asset classes is ridiculous. You only need to look at the period starting in 1929 in most countries to see that equities don't necessarily outperform over 10-year periods. The recent experience in Japan is even worse. Nikkei peaked at about 40,000 in 1990, and 18 to 19 years later, it's below 8,500. How is that for "long term investing" ?