Thread: I am losing money!!!

Originally Posted by funkyhunky

After a -4% return last year I AM +1% in the autotracker!!

Got the market completely figured out, I am pretty much the wolf of wall street now

Nice job! Your perseverance is paying off. Stick to that "I'm on top attitude" and you should be good.

You don't lose money until you sell. I rode out purchases that had me at -40%+ that eventually went to +50% when it was time to sell. Sometimes the best thing to do is not caring what the market does (takes practice). When you sell as a knee-jerk, that's the best way to lock in losses.

Very good Sniper.

Its always good to be reminded that losing money is something WE cause (controllable), losing value is something the market causes (uncontrollable).
The same number of shares are still there unless you bought some more through payroll allocation or you conducted an ill advised IFT. (something I am often guilty of).

Sometimes we are our own worst enemies.

If you rode the Great Depression from start to finish you would have been in trouble...
The S&P500 (or equivalent) lost something like 90% from peak to trough.

But, if you accept a noise decline (say 7%) and buy on that dip.
Then, start stepping out of risk after further 7% declines.
You would have been at less risk as things failed.

But, would have something left to grow when things got better.

Personally, years like 2008 are not so hard to deal with. Just step back at a measured pace. It is harder getting back into the market. If you start buying back in too early (which I did) you can watch another 10% decline in a couple of day. If you get back in way too late (Amoeba) then every 1% decline enforces your opinion that the Great Depression is ongoing. However, if you still have something in the market you will catch at least some of the boom up when it happens. You will feel better allocating more risk at that point than those chaps huddled in little dark caves and sitting on underground Lilly Pad pools. And if things are smiling a little bit than folks like BT brighten the day and a thousand points of light illuminate the joy of life...

Good points Boghie, it takes discipline. There will undoubtedly be future corrections and this board and TSP has given me more sense of control. In 2008/2009, and likewise in my whole TSP history (2004) I did nothing. Fatalistically, I just saw it go down, still contributing and eventually it came up, with my accnt. eventually the better. Now, doing an IFT is easier than rolling off a log, (hopefully) with my accnt. the better.

Originally Posted by funkyhunky

I AM +1% in the autotracker!!

Got the market completely figured out...

If you have it figured out completely, I expect about a 50% gain from you this year! Best of luck the next 11 months of the year!