Sarah, my daughter in South Korea - will go to North Korea in the near future. Her ultimate goal, and dream of dreams, is to somehow be a part of uniting them as "one". Hopefully we are comming to a better time - a better place - where we can openly accept each other AND resolve the "ongoing war between N & S Korea" without bloodshed or conflict.
But your point is a good one. As I've researched Iran over the years I've come to find the general population have held on to their true idenity - and largely resent the powers over them.
Steady, I was just there....I could've popped in on her and said hi...oh well. I get to go back in March!
Take it from one who has spent many a year in South Korea, I too hope they can tear down that fence and get on with focusing on the real things in life......LIVING instead of FIGHTING!!!!
THIS IS WHERE I WOULD PUT SOMETHING TO REPRESENT MY THINKING, BUT THEN THEY SHOW UP!
Tracker = Check my position
Lady:
Thanks for the definition...I always wanted to learn Latin..
FS
FogSailing
Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.
Lady,
Come on over to ChemEng thread and share some of your life long experiences with us regarding educating children.
Wow!! Started my day off perfect - and now...what can I say, I'm speechless.
That's the ultimate beauty of this site NOT the 1-4% gains; but the real bonds that make it all so beautiful.
Lady - thank you too!!
Am over the worst and feeling the healing.
It's strange because I refused to let it go - somehow felt to let go of the pain was the worst failure - but had to find something deeper inside and once I found that nothing else mattered.
Well, I've honestly got at least 10 charts to write up and an admission in the hospital I need to take care of. But today is one of those glorious days that keeps bringing back for more and more.
Have a good night - see ya tomorrow.
Lady, found some information about Barclays contract. It is on my account. Enjoy the reading.
May the force be with us.
For anyone who still has IFTs for August (an IFT before noon today) or wants to use their first September IFT (an IFT after noon today), here are this week's updates on the simple moving averages. Trend shifts? Or just a plot to make us crazy?
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,G Fund,,,,F Fund,,,C Fund,,,S Fund,,,,I Fund
10 day SMA: ,,+0.0%,,,,+0.2%,,,,+0.9%,,,+1.2%,,,,+0.9%
20 day SMA: ,,+0.1%,,,,+0.5%,,,+0.7%,,,+1.0%,,,,-0.1%
50 day SMA: ,,+0.4%,,,,+0.9%,,,+2.3%,,,+3.0%,,,,-3.0%
100 day SMA: ,+0.7%,,+0.8%,,,-1.9%,,,,,-0.3%,,,,,,-9.0%
150 day SMA: ,+1.1%,,+0.7%,,,-1.7%,,,,,+0.9%,,,,-8.9%
200 day SMA: ,+1.5%,,+1.0%,,,-3.2%,,,,,+0.1%,,,,-10.5%
The above numbers are the simple moving averages (SMAs) for each fund, based
on Thrift Fund share prices and simplified by being recorded only once a week. Because I'm
trying to look at trends I've highlighted any changes < or > 0.5%. Follow the column
down in order to see how a TSP Fund is trending long-term.
Lady, your expertise is required by the Happy Bear - and this information would be helpful on the Retirement Planning thread as well.
http://www.tsptalk.com/mb/showpost.p...postcount=1335
The tables in the following article aren't going to format correctly, but I've included the address if you'd like to see the original article. I thought it was interesting.
- Why Now Is a Good Time to "Be Greedy"
By Jim Mueller
August 26, 2008
"I will tell you how to become rich. … Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful."
-- Warren Buffett
What makes Buffett's quote especially relevant today is the following bit of information:
A recent New York Times article pointed out that bearish sentiment, as measured by the Conference Board, has hit an all-time high. Fully 55% of the people questioned in July expect the stock market to decline over the next 12 months.
Why is this important today? Because each time the bearish sentiment has exceeded 35% over the past 21 years, the market has confounded that sentiment by gaining ground over the following year, at an average pace of 20.5%.
Month
Bearish Sentiment (% of People Questioned)
Following 12-Month Rise in S&P 500 Index
Nov. 1987
39%
19%
Oct. 1990
48%
29%
Dec. 1991
36%
4%
April 1994
36%
14%
Oct. 1998
36%
24%
Mar 2003
47%
33%
July 2008
55%
??
Source: The New York Times.
I love pessimism
Of course, past performance is no guarantee of future return, but take another look at that quote above. And then read this one, also from Warren Buffett, from his 1990 letter to shareholders:
The most common cause of low prices is pessimism -- sometimes pervasive, sometimes specific to a company or industry. We want to do business in such an environment, not because we like pessimism but because we like the prices it produces. It's optimism that is the enemy of the rational buyer.
Were you one of those who checked the table above when I told you the date of that quote? The man knows what he's talking about.
As an example, in October 1990, just as bearish sentiment was peaking at 48%, he revealed that he had upped his position in Wells Fargo to just shy of 10% of the company. In the following 12 months, while the market returned a "mere" 29%, that one investment returned 123%. In the five years following that bearish peak, it returned 290%, or 31.3% average per year! And that doesn't even include the dividends. He still owns about 8.8% of the company.
Here's a more recent example
The last time bearish sentiment peaked, in the spring of 2003, it reached 47%. However, if you had been greedy instead of fearful, you could have picked up shares in the following fairly prominent, well-capitalized companies and gotten some outstanding returns:
Company
Market Cap, 3/31/03
Debt-to-Equity, 12/31/02
Price Change, 3/31/03 - 3/31/08
Apple(Nasdaq: AAPL)
$5.1 billion
7.8%
1,930%
Celgene(Nasdaq: CELG)
$2.0 billion
0.05%
840%
CVS Caremark(NYSE: CVS)
$9.4 billion
21.4%
240%
Research In Motion(Nasdaq: RIMM)
$1.0 billion
1.6%
5,056%
Source: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's.
What is Warren doing today?
Now with bearish sentiment again sky high, Buffett has been greedy this year. Not only has he continued to increase his position in railroad Burlington Northern(NYSE: BNI), but he's also taken a fairly sizable position in industrial-equipment maker Ingersoll-Rand(NYSE: IR). He's even bumped up his holding in health insurer UnitedHealth Group(NYSE: UNH) some 7%.
Will those picks work out for him? Given his record, probably.
However, the question you must ask yourself today isn't "What is Warren doing?"
Rather, it's "Am I going to be greedy?"
Pasted from <http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2008/08/26/why-now-is-a-good-time-to-be-greedy.aspx>
Is it appropriate to draw general conclusions from Buffet’s current selective purchases? Isn’t it likely that the sentiment will further retreat? While the market looks forward, I wonder what we can see as the future good news that would cause a turnaround at this moment rather than some far off future date? I’ve yet to see an analysis of news and events at the time of the previous bottoms that would help put current data and political news in that context. Buffet also says never bet against America, but when offering a time range says that things will not be better in 5 months but will be better in 5 years. Dennis believes in DCA to offset the possible missing of a dramatic increase, but a 20% dramatic increase after another 25% drop is still a loss. Besides, now he’s no longer investing for his own use but for his heirs’ use. That’s really longterm and makes his advice of less value to his contemporaries.
S&P500 (C Fund) (delayed) (Stockcharts.com Real-time) |
DWCPF (S Fund) (delayed) (Stockcharts.com Real-time) |
EFA (I Fund) (delayed) (Stockcharts.com Real-time) |
BND (F Fund) (delayed) (Stockcharts.com Real-time) |
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