Just wanted to add - on the other hand, I do remember at least 1 person in my company that moved all his 401K money from stocks to bonds/cash (and I think at least 1 other was strongly considering doing so). Don't remember exactly when, but I think it was around or somewhat after the Lehman fall time! Ugh. That shows that sometimes buy and hold and Dollar Cost Averaging does work better then giving up. JJacksET4
it's paper gains morons. the funds who manage your funds get paid 3% management fee moron! the market is not real... that 3% management fee is real money.
QE doesn't create wealth..it merely transfers wealth. the orginal reason for QE was because the banks like bank of america and banks like citigroup was insolvent. and gov't bailout of bad toxic assets. gov't prints money to buy those worthless assets. or highly illiquid toxi assets. when nobody wants to had the money to buy thos toxic assets. people don't forgot why they call it the 'credit crisis' 2008 banks were not lending to each and not lending to hedge funds to speculate in the markets. now QE is justified to create jobs and keep the stock market going higher etc.===but consequence is inflation in commodities. and debasing of the US dollar. and bad credit rating for gov't debt. just like options and futures is z'ero sum game' for 95% of the volume or more.
there are no buyers...so it's a paper gain. it's only a real gain after you sold for cash. the fed won't be supporting this market forever. with QE or easy credit. you havene't begun to see selling. this is just pullback and some profit taking etc.. real selling and liquidation won't happen 200 day moving average is broken
OK, Here is the deal - when the markets were like DOW 6000 people said "the little guy who invested has been screwed". Now, with the dow around 12000, people say: "the little guy who invested has been screwed" Truth is "the little guy" had plenty of opportunity to buy stocks like LVS, MGM, AAPL, CROX, and literally 100s of other stocks - stick to their guns holding them as the markets rose, and sell them for large returns. If the returns have been "phony" and Fed induced really doesn't matter if they already sold (and again, they've had PLENTY of chances to sell here). Once again most "little guys" didn't do this - but they clearly had a chance to do so whether it will be up or down from here. JJacksET4
Why the heck would IWM near its all time high be unbelievable? What, did I wander into Trailer Park Trader or something? I mean, WTF? In a recovery, when everything is moving up rapidly, small stocks will move up much more so, because of a little thing called beta. Look it up. Sheesh.
"There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved." Ludwig von Mises
i do understand thing or two about the beta..but in 2001 IWM was 45-50 and today-it's 80. S&P is close to all time high too. my question ito you: is US today better than it is in 95-2000? cause according to US stock market-it is...
The Russell is less than 5% from its all time high, which it only recently made, whereas the S&P is more than 10% away, and its high was made before the crisis. In other words, small stocks have rebounded much faster than large stocks, which was my point and which isn't unusual behavior at all. Going by the S&P, and remembering that the companies in that index do most of the business in the US, we haven't fully recovered, so your the answer to your question, going by the behavior of the markets themselves, is no. What the GDP numbers today showed is that we're a lot closer to the day when the answer to that question will be yes.