It may seem a little counterintuitive, but sounds like the right thing to may be to just get a good, liquid ETF, e.g. SPY (or a broader one based on the Wilshire 5000), and relax. Unless you're a good algo trader with thoroghly backtested ideas, a pro. Just do what you REALLY like - sailing, art, sports, partying, whatever, depending upon age and taste. Experience, convertible into something valuable. Of course, the ETF strategy would've brought you a stunning -1.9% (or smth like that) over, say, 1988-2008. But maybe if your holding period is, for example, 2009-2012, you'll be more lucky. After all, we don't have crises every year.
You, pedro, fall foul of survivorship bias here, methinks... Just what percentage of your 'cockney lad' sample that went in actually succeeded in the trading/investment mgmt arena? You should compare that to the same record demonstrated by PhDs/academics. And please let's not use good old Terry Crawley as an example of an Essex barrow-boy... The man's unique. asiaprop, I am in full agreement with you, but could you pls not be so abusive? pedro has a right to express his opinion and we all have a right to disagree and argue, but let's not insult each other pls.
TZ, is it too much to ask you to please keep the discussion civil and not resort to insults? Everyone is entitled to have an opinion... Please...
Holy shit, he nailed it! Through a fucking computer too nontheless. Good thing you had your friend there to help you through the thought process of figuring out whether I'm retarded or not through a computer. That's a pretty lofty task. Hope you guys didn't rack your brains too hard. I'm going to proceed now to trip over large objects and crash through walls of my house because I'm so stupid.