NOOB, You are dreaming...the bear market is not over. Study market history. Learn technical analysis. Many stocks have stopped paying dividends. Interest rates are at an all time low ...there is a 27 year cycle in interest rates....I was planning on waiting til prefereds where low, then buylng them and living off dividends....not now. Get some education. You will pay either way...and don't feel bad about the money. At least you are asking questions, which is the beginning of knowledge. The stock market dropped 89% in the great depression...it took stocks decades to recover. Learn about inverse funds.
Sumosam, maybe this is stupid question, but with inverse funds, is it possible to owe more than the principle because of shorting?
Yes, at 2:1, it is a leveraged instrument designed to reverse split into more shares when it declines more than going to 0.
spot on. when people tell me there upset becuase there 401k are down so much they give me a look like im crazy when i tell them its the best thing possible. if your in the accumulation phase (these people are in there lower 30 and 20's) the best thing to happen is buying more at lower levels and selling later. yes i understand that nobody knows if we are going lower but you just have to keep investing. i never feel as i have an edge over anyone else in buying stocks in my PA for long term, so i just buy ultra low cost index funds and etf's mostly via vanguard
Since the S&P closed the year at -38.5% and the Dow at -33.8% your portfolio is pretty much the same as these indexes. The point is, you could be long of Spy or Diamond and you would get the same return than your current diversified portfolio...No headaches...
My LT retirement SD IRA was up 6% this year. Consider some changes if this is a truly LT account. Weekly Chart, 13ema/52sma Stock cross for LTerm Trend. And if LT trend is down PROTECT YOURSELF and your entire retirement account into US ShortTerm Treas. SPY --> SHY easy to do for your retirement accounts.
MY Portfolio is down LIKE %40 that also it is due to Citi bank other wise i would be down %32 I Invested like $10000 6 month ago and now it is exactly $6500 I Lost in LEH i lost in MER leaps which are worthless now still holding MER XLF C As soon as i am brake even bye bye to the market It is better to day trade then to keep long term
My OPINION only: Average down as much as you can afford - stick with mainstream stuff like SPY and QQQ that will inevitably recover. Sometime in the next 10 or 20 years, there will of course be another stock market bubble and you'll clean up long-term. Also, the bank sector XLF is an awesome long-term play to capitalize on the windfall banking profits to come in the next 10 years once the housing mess has run its course. The banks that have survived have all these mortgage-backed assets written to zero during the crunch that are going to magically appear as profits/growth on their balance sheets once the markets recover.
GOLD Look for dollar inflation when other economies around the world recover. Companies like FCX and SLW are great metals plays. Or you can do the gold miners ETF 'GDX'. Miners move much better than the actual metal. Corp Debt HYG(though it is at a large premium now) and LQD are great buys. Also maybe look at some exchange traded debt on a company like Regions(banks with little/no subprime mess). I don't know too much, and obviously this is just my opinion. Actually I will be getting out of the markets soon, and will be ready for the next drop. *Since exchange traded debt is traded like stock must it be accreted?