The 4% from bottom to where we're now is chump change if this is a real continuation of a bull rally that leads us 20% higher from here. Only beginners buy into huge sell offs... until they get burned. Might take 10 sell offs to end in an actual bear market but it will happen sooner or later (I hope later...). History repeats itself every once in a while.
The selloff on FEB 27 was very similar to the one on 1987 but on a much smaller scale. No good cause-just panic. I bought the dips as a result.
Congratulations on the buying .. and also respect for your balls of steel. Just a reminder: One day you will witness a terrible sell-off on no apparent economic data or event and you might be tempted to buy the dip and a few months later the market will be down 15% from that point... because then some actual news or reasoning for the sell-off is rationalized in the market. Not trying to predict misfortune for you personally, I hope you continue to be successful in trading forever. Just a word of caution.
True, but two caveats: 1) Always use risk management. If you get caught in a huge correction, of course you don't just stay long indefinitely. 2) You should test your system/strategy and see how it did during the 2000-2002 bear market, as well as more recent years. If it did well in both, it's a lot more likely to handle a major correction or bear market in the future. Although I was a major buyer during this dip, you do have a good point. We've been spoiled since early 2003. You could buy every dip since then, take just a little heat, and be profitable every time. The market won't always behave like this. But this doesn't mean the next huge correction is around the corner, either. The permabears are wrong a lot more often than they're right. Like the people on here calling for a big drop in foreign markets--yeah, they'll be right...eventually. Just like permabears who missed the whole 80s and 90's rally then said "I told you so!" in 2000. But at what cost? They sat in cash and missed a once-in-a-lifetime run. Overall, you're better off following the trend, not permabears, and being sensible about risk control.
I understand where you are coming from there is always the possibility of a massive, long term reversal that isnt triggered by any particular event. I didn't trade stocks between 00-03' so I don't have much dta to fall back on. But dip buyers did lose a lot of money between 00-02