Main Street to Wall Street: We don't buy the rally. Main Street to Wall Street: We don't buy the rally; small investors steer clear of bull market NEW YORK (AP) -- Edward Shook can't resist a bull market. He rode the one in the late 1990s and lost $350,000 in the dot-com collapse. Shaken but optimistic, he bought into the bull market that followed -- and lost another $350,000 from his portfolio's peak when stocks fell to a 12-year low in early 2009. Now the 65-year-old roofing contractor from Raleigh, N.C., says "he's getting smart for a change." Even though the Standard & Poor's 500 has climbed 68 percent since March, Shook is largely leaving the stock market "to the crooks that run" it. He's sold shares and bought bonds instead, with no regrets. Millions of other Americans are steering the same course. After being key players in bull runs of the past, small-time investors have not only stopped buying, they're selling. The question for the new year: If the man on the street doesn't jump back in, will stocks continue to defy gravity? ............. "The typical investor gets it dramatically, persistently wrong," says Larry Swedroe, director of research at Buckingham Asset Management in Clayton, Mo. "He buys high and sells low -- and that's a dumb strategy." Rosenberg, the Gluskin Sheff bear, says the market could lose a third of its value once the government props are kicked away. Jeremy Grantham, 71, the founder of Boston money manager GMO who warned that housing and stocks were widely overvalued a few years ago, thinks investors should tread carefully. According to his latest letter to clients, he thinks the S&P is fairly priced at 860, nearly a quarter below where it's trading now. ..."It's like investing in Bernie Madoff," he says of the stock markets. "Anyone not putting money into stocks has it right." http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Main-Street-to-Wall-Street-We-apf-3229234994.html?x=0 Looks like a correction is in the makes ...... may be it is time to sell some of the stocks and wait.
The whole system is so flawed now...only little guys like us take losses. I wish some of the damn bailout money had come my way to make up for the $60K my 401K lost in the past year.
Harsh Realities: 85K Jobs Lost in December, "Real" Unemployment Rate at 17.3% .................. I used to have my roth IRA with "Strong Advantage Fund". These guys for 8 years made my acc. up only one year, Most of the time it was down 40%..... Then a few months ago I decided to take control. I opened an account with an online brokarage (got the free trades recomendation from a friend ) I picked up a stock for myself and made up the losses in about a week. Don't let some brokers manage YOUR MONEY, all they care is about THEIR COMMISSIONS AND BONUSES. (I am not saying all are no good, but most are, do a search and you'll find out how many of your friends lost money with their BIG NAME BROKERS.)