Lux Investing

Stock market nightmare?

I've been investing in the stock market for the past seven years. This has been a horrific year for investors, and my portfolio is down 40%. I will not need the money for about 15yrs. should I stay in the market or sell? I'm invested in fixed income and mutual funds. The fixed income part of my portfolio has been holding ground, but the mutual funds have taken a hit. Your thoughts?

Public Comments

1. stay in the market
2. Stay in. Its not like the market can go down ANOTHER 7000 points right?!
3. Stay very diversified and stay in. You are young enough to get through this and though some of the stocks may be worthless, some will be golden. It is just beyond most anyone to say what will make money in this environment.
4. no one knows for certain when the turn around will occur, assuming it will! Sell now and acknowledge a huge loss--tax write off indeed. However, miss the turn around momentum, and you could miss a big part of your investments' recovery. So it is a hard decision--stay or go. I say go, but unfortunately, I've been saying go for months now, and while that has been the correct idea lately, it may not be in the coming months. I say take some of your stock-invested cash and turn it into stable assets--food, guns, etc. Welcome to tomorrow.
5. it is absoulutly too late to sell. hopefully they will recover in the next 10 years, chances are they will.
6. You should only sell if there are better investment opportunities. Not the grass is greener on the other side type of investments... but better funds, or individual stocks. You can take a loss on your investments and use the write down and allocate your assets into a better fund or stock. I do not ever recommend mutual funds. If you have the time of day, study individual stocks. These aren't the race tracks, there chances that poor businesses will ever take away market share from Branded companies. When you scattershot, you are at the mercy of your poor holdings dragging down your holdings that are beating the market. A chain is only as strong as it's weakest link... remember that. Imagine if Wallstreet was a Mall... and you had $100,000 to invest in each store. Would you equally spread out your money to each store so they can invest it for you? Probably not, because you already know by foot traffic which stores have a grasp on the consumer and are capable of offering you better returns. So you focus on the ones that have been driving in brand traffic, not fad traffic. Don't worry about the market as a whole, worry about individual companies. I as a person like to think I'm above average and I expect my stocks to do the same. Obviously you will want to do your homework before taking anyones advice, so goodluck to you.