buy and hold

Jump Back into Stocks Immediately?

October 18, 2008

Take a walk with me down Memory Lane: 1973: S&P down over 17%  (ouch) 1974: S&P down over 29%. (ouch again) The bottom for the S&P was reached in October 1974. And the bottom was reached — yet again — in December 1974. There was no advantage to jumping 100% back in, immediately. October 19, [...]

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Is 1100 for the S&P 500 like the Equator?

October 18, 2008

Like crossing the equator on a ship — should buy and hold investors get some kind of recognition (or have some celebration) for crossing the line?  The S&P 500 crossed 1100 in 1998 (twice), 2001 (3X!), 2002, 2004 and 2008.  Look, when I drive around the same block twice, even I ask for directions!  Oh, [...]

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Jerry Yang, Yahoo: Should you own Media Darlings?

July 24, 2008

I’m going to paint a word picture for you. Suppose you own a stock that gave three successive buy signals last summer — in 2007. The stock ran from $28 per share up to $34 a share. Sounds good so far, right? But the stock then broke through the support line, was already on a [...]

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Legg Mason Value Trust

July 16, 2008

Ever heard of Bill Miller? He runs the Legg Mason Value Trust (LVMTX). Miller is literally splattered all over CNBC and other media outlets. He’s a value manager, which means he likes to buy stocks at a discount, and then essentially sit on them, until they appreciate. He made a name for himself as he [...]

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Why “Average Joe” Can’t Make Money In the Market

May 10, 2008

The period we’re in now is not necessarily a “bull market” or a “bear market” but more like a structurally “fair market.” I didn’t make that up on my own — Tom Dorsey, from Dorsey Wright and Associates in Richmond coined that term. I think that makes a lot of sense. From 1982 up through [...]

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Recession Worse than Expected?

March 25, 2008

There was an article distributed nationwide, written by the Associated Press, and carried locally in the Asbury Park Press on March 22, 2008. I’ve re-printed the article here, but dropped in my own comments after each paragraph. The main point to take away from this exercise is that by the time news reaches Main Street, [...]

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Cutting Losses Short

February 15, 2008

Most Wall Street recommendations to buy are based on projected future revenues and/or projected future earnings. Projected. Or you could say, “predicted”. Ever notice that a stock will begin to drop (many times without any news), and people will begin to ask “why is XYZ dropping?” Then rumors begin to swirl that something might be [...]

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What’s working now…

January 29, 2007

Roughly 70% of all stock mutual funds invest in the exact same 500 stocks. These are the stocks in the S&P 500 Index. Seven years ago (Jan. 2000), the S&P 500 stood at 1400.  Know where the S&P 500 is today? Go ahead, take a look.  It’s 1422. The S&P 500 is a “weighted” index [...]

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