How ya feelin' today? I hope the guy who asked for stock-picking advice here a few weeks ago didn't wager his life savings on one of those momentum plays. We skeptics are back to wag our fingers. Stocks are reliable. Stock sectors and stock-picking formulas are no more reliable than Walt Williams. Hot today, bricks tomorrow.
Will, I've been watching this forum waiting for you to come in and say, "I told you so." I kept my "mouth" shut when that thread was rolling, but it may have been the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I decided, "what the hell," and I finally took the plunge. I only used money I though I could afford to lose, but I made my first $3,500 worth of investments in my new online account--right before the bottom fill out. It's now worth about half that. I didn't panic and sell anything, but in retrospect, I should have taken my losses. The market will rebound, but not enough to cover my losses. Oh well, easy come, easy go: I thought I was gonna owe about $4,000 in taxes this year, and while I was looking for help on the Internet, I learned that my new truck weighs over 6000 pounds, and is therefore, not considered a "passenger vehicle," so I can claim most of it as a section 179 deduction. Instead of paying all those taxes, I'll get a refund. It's all a crap shoot, baby! Life is just one big Vegas--except for the free drinks. ------------------ stop posting my damn signature
Talking about NASDAQ, what about the 617 point drop for the Dow??? Largest single day point drop in history, but not the largest percentage drop. ------------------ I have a dream.........his name's Hakeem.
Hey, I got out about 3 weeks ago after getting drubbed. I had a return of 18% through March before getting hit hard early April and pulling out. I'm still getting a return of about 10% YTD... What's the S&P's return... is it even positive? I'll always and forever be a momentum investor. I bought into funds trading shorts about 3 weeks ago. Most of these funds are shorting NASDAQ stocks with ridiculous valuations. One I got ahold of was USPIX... returned 73% last week. Another URPIX returned about 25%. Of course, I didn't have the guts to put a lot of money into either one, but when the NASDAQ is tanking, why not put something into funds you know will go up when overvalued stocks are tanking? It helped ease the pain of losing 8% in about 3 weeks. *sigh* This is going to be a rocky market until May when the FOMC meets again. Even after their upcoming probable rate-hike, I doubt things will be "peachy" for a while. It won't matter if you trade in NASDAQ or the DJIA, you will get rocked. No stock is safe from mass hysteria... lol! Dreamer, no offense man, but diversification even overseas wouldn't have helped you with some of the stuff that was going on these past few weeks. You are right, though, nothing helps huge losses quite like diversification. But then, those who diversified also don't necessarily get to ride the roller coaster up. So what's everybody else doing through these fun times? I'm about 90% cash right now. I don't own any stocks at the moment and own the 2 funds I mentioned above. I'll probably sell them if I see a consistent upswing in the market (which doesn't look like it's happening anytime soon). By "consistent" I mean a general up-trend for at least 1-2 weeks. BTW, I have a friend whose down-payment on a house went up in flames the past week. Lesson to be learned, if you need the money within 3 years, DON'T put it into the stock market. Dump it into a CD or Money Market! ------------------ <this space for rent> [This message has been edited by Dr of Dunk (edited April 16, 2000).]
