Hi Jay -
I can understand your confusion and you probably share my frustration. I'm not sure if you really wanted an answer but I will reply. Yes my returns have lagged this year. But if you have been reading this site for a month I would think you would know what I'm doing. As an extreme example, lets compare fund prices from January 26 to yesterday.
GF C S I
Jan 2610.27 10.07 12.11 13.28 13.41
Mar 0310.3110.1512.0913.2613.31
+ .04+ .08 - .02 - .02 - .10
I expected this consilidation to start about 3 weeks earlier than it it did and that cost me. But since January 26th, my account is up about 1/2% and you can see all of the stock funds are down. I wish I could have taken more advantage of the swings but I have stayed cautious.
Here is something I wrote on January 23.
"depending on your tolerance for fluctuations, you have some choices. You can keep your account in stocks and ride the storm knowing you should have a nice return at the end of the year. You can play the volatility by getting in at oversold levels, and out when overbought. Or you can play very conservatively and stay out of the stock funds until the volatility has subsided, hopefully sitting on some nice gains over last few months."
If you are in it for the longer term and don't want to "hide in the tall grass", I have thelonger term outlook page.
The only way to beat the stock indices Jay, is to be out when they are down. It's too easy to look back and say what I should have done. My strategy is to protect my account when my indicators tell meto. Its likegetting a weather report telling youit's going to rain. You bring your umbrella but it turns out you didn't need it as we only got a little sprinkle. But you were prepared just in case. You'll be able to put that umbrella away soon enough. Give it a couple more weeks.
Thanks for your input. It should trigger an interesting discussion.
Tom
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