Someone once told me that stocks are the best investment for the long haul. Don't worry about trading in and out, just buy and hold on tight baby. Dont worry what the market does today, tomorrow or the next day, neither should I care about next month. In the long term it'll go up. REALLYY? So, if the S&P500 is the great long term investment instrument I'm a bit confused: Why in the hell is the annualized return from June 1998 to June 2008 only 1.2%. CD'S are kicking the stock markets ass!! Buy n hold seems more like buy n mold to me given those miserable stats.
There's not much you can do besides speculate futures short, invest in commodities in demand by delevoping nations and carry trade currencies. Even growth stocks are integrating into the bear markets. And forget value stocks. They'll be even a better value at a bottom. In this market, the buy and hold strategy is ruining folks. Just crack open a chart, any chart, and the proof's in the pudding. Schlumberger just broke up. That's the only stock I'm trading currently.
I'm not complaining about the market, I've done pretty well. It just strikes me as sad that the majority of people have been sold hard into buy and hold, and its doing terribly for them.
you said someone once told you stocks are the best investment and to buy and hold, and you refute that by saying if u bought a specific instrument at an exact time and held until exactly now you would be up only 1.2% on avg. im not sure why you think these two statements contradict each other? they have almost nothing to do with each other.
by the way, im not necessarily saying your friend is absolutely right, but if he's wrong it certainly is not because your reasoning.
What calculations are you using to come to this number on the S&P? Here's something: The DJIA: Dec 72 1,033.22 Dec 82 1,018.00 The SPX Dec 72 118.05 Dec 82 138.69 A FLAT ten year span. People made money in equities though. Conversely, if they bought and held the above two during those times, they were probably less than thrilled. However, if they held on a little longer, and even a little longer, the charts tell the rest of the story. Up until 2000. From looking at a long term chart of the dow and snp, two huge tops can be noted at 1998 and 2008... I didn't care for the results following the last top:eek: , and don't need a repeat.:eek: