Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Feeling bad for people held hostage by market

I've talked to countless people who feel that they now cannot get out of their stock market mutual funds because selling would make their losses final.

One poor friend threw up after the Dow fell 700 points a few weeks ago.

Yes, your losses would be final if you sell now. But you can then put your money into a safe place such as money market funds and start getting a 3 percent return. And the U.S. Treasury has pledged to back those funds, so your principal won't be in any danger.

The Dow will keep falling this month. Below 7,000 is a certainty. I believe 6300 will be the bottom, reached during the first quarter of 2009. So quit living in fear of each day of trading. Get into safe harbor.

The bottom will not be definite. It will dance around for several months so don't buy into the broker bullshit that you have to stay in your mutual funds so you don't miss the big bounce. There will be a lot of bad economic news next year to make the Dow continue to yo-yo around.

Life is too short to be held hostage. Get into a safe harbor and avoid the rest of the storm.

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