Comments on: Don’t Compound Your Investment Losses by Investing Less in Down Markets and More in Up Markets

By: Terry Wasson

Terry Wasson — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 04:01:30 +0000

I wonder what will happen to people who take your advice if you are wrong. They only suggestion ever given is to
“Ride it Out”. I am 60 years old and I lost a very large amount of money that will never come back. To encourage
people to keep investing may totally ruin some lives.
If you are over 50 there is a very strong chance you will be dead by the time we recover.
I see little evidence of a recovery anytime soon and much more capital may be lost. There is surely a point where the loss is
so great that you will never recover. The always used line that historically the market always recovers may be not
accurate for today’s not so typical market. I personally will never invest again. I prefer to keep at least something to
retire on and not gamble it in a very uncertain market. I’m fully aware some of you will label me stupid and call me too weak to
be in the mutual funds. I hope I am wrong and those of you that stay with the “Ride it out crowd” don’t regret your choice.
I simply do not trust the market today and doubt I ever will.

By: Neko

Neko — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:09:20 +0000

This is a good article. I personally have doubled my 401(k) contribution and am buying up my company’s stock through the 401(k) plan with tax free money. With the market down so much, it’s like a double discount.

- Neko

By: Jeff Rose

Jeff Rose — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:37:47 +0000

I wonder at times if it would be better if people couldn’t see there 401k statements. Ludicrous as that sounds, think about pensions and social security. The investments behind those fluctuate every day, but you never see that.

Imagine if you got a monthly statement in regards to your social security benefits. One month your guaranteed income would be $1200/mo and then the next month it would be $500/mo. Wouldn’t that be fun for a lot of people?

By: Armen Shirvanian

Armen Shirvanian — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 07:21:26 +0000

I would say that this material fits along the theme of having a bit more self-control in one’s daily activity. It can be easy to see a small sign, and assume that it is a message to make quick change, but one has to remember that a social rise or decrease runs based on different factors than a natural rise or decrease. People tend to make decisions to buy or sell as a group, and so one might need to extricate themselves from following the group if they want to have a chance at separating themselves in an upward direction.

By: Donny Gamble

Donny Gamble — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:58:04 +0000

This is especially true if you are more than 10 years away from retirement. There is no need really to worry about your retirement savings now, instead just worry about increasing the amount of money that you put into these savings.

By: Mark Nelson

Mark Nelson — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:18:37 +0000

Your post comes at a good time. I’m sure there are a lot of people thinking they need to cut back on investing until the market is corrected. But you can buy things on sale now.

If you have a monthly plan for investing. Stick to the plan and things will be okay.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:11:05 +0000

Sean, I think in some ways, the markets are efficient. But looking back to just last week, we can see that there are many times when that clearly isn’t the case. Just look at how the market dropped nearly 8% early in the week, only to recover almost completely by Friday’s close. All of this was based on surprise news. Aside from some of the companies directly affected, did the value of the companies in the broad market really drop 8% in two days? Did they suddenly become 8% more valuable a few days later?

So in a broad sense looking at longer periods of time, I’d argue that the markets are pretty efficient. But in times of distress or euphoria, irrational behavior can do more to drive the markets into these bubble and bust cycles that we’re starting to see. This probably has a lot to do with the way the markets have evolved over the past 50+ years, who’s investing, and how easily the information can be instantly spread across the world.

By: Sean

Sean — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 15:46:31 +0000

Jeremy, what are your thoughts on efficient markets?

By: OilyGasMiner

OilyGasMiner — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:23:03 +0000

Great post Jeremy, a lot of investors get scarred and run off when they see falling prices. For further analogy suppose I would sell you a 2009 bmw for $1000, when you KNOW its worth at least $50k. Are you going to buy it? Or scratch your head contemplating whether or not its worth it? The same thing applies here, great companies are going on sale, giving investors the prime opportunity to load up on some quality companies looking forward to the future. I’ve got my eye on a few undervalued mining companies and I’ve been searching for places on how to properly place value on these kind of companies. I found a neat post I thought you might be interested in http://www.stockresearchportalblog.com They have a17 part SERIES on the topic, I’ve only gone through a couple but its definitely a solid read.

By: MiningOilGasGuru

MiningOilGasGuru — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 03:39:56 +0000

Fantastic post. It is an important reminder that I really needed. I have been scared of the markets for the past couple weeks, but I am just barely sticking with my investment plan of consistancy. Your thoughts are helping me out!