Obviously the thought of selling is to insure less loss of equity value in the event of a severe downturn. The problem is what can you do with the proceeds to continue a decent income or dividend stream. With banks paying bupkus (best reasonable length CD I could find is 1.2%) if the market continues downward for any length of time one risks having to use the equity to replace income. Which in turn makes it more difficult to reinvest and get the same amount of yield as before. With the Fed (and the rest of the world) keeping interest rates this low for so long-this has been the most challenging period of time for me. I am not one to take on much risk. But the level of safety decreases dramatically if one tries to beat bank or federally insured interest vehicles by much. But as you are predicting-the sky will eventually fall-I just suspect it will be a bit longer than what you are forecasting. I am looking at March 2013 through May 2013 for the stuff to hit the fan.
It depends on how you value short term inflation risk vs equity risk. If you honestly believe that their is a bubble that will burst keeping/moving assets to cash in the short term isn't a terrible idea. You do run the risk of inflation taking off and this NOT being a bubble and being left behind.
That said, if inflation takes off I believe that the FED will HAVE to raise rates to tame inflation. Keeping inflation down is (or at least should be) a more fundamental priority of the Fed than keeping unemployment low. That could itself cause a steep decine in the market as some entities will HAVE to sell as they deleverage.
Very much the way I have been thinking and approaching this market. Currently I suspect the way the Fed has handled inflation is to just ignore that it exists (for the most part). Just because it is not included in the statistics they use does not mean it isn't affecting everyone. If they included my costs for food, energy, cable bill, telephone, health insurance, real estate taxes, home owner's insurance-a truer picture might emerge. My age and predicted longevity obviously affects how I deal with all of this. If i was 20-30 years younger the risk would not be as much of a problem (but i would certainly not have the assets to invest that i do now). 11 years ago when iIwent into a semi retired state-I had tried to plan carefully. But there was no way I could expect 0% interest rates and for how long they would be maintained. I had based most of my projections using a very conservative return of 3% which was well below bank interest at the time and historically not high. Certainly obtaining a steady stream of income from yield has been a challenge.
That's a huge part of it. For those who don't know, the government has traditionally removed food and energy prices from CPI because of their volatile nature. You can find them when looking at sub-indices the BLS tracks, but the official CPI, against which social security rate changes are based, excludes those two very important components. I've always thought that they could reduce the impact of volatility by using a three- or four-month moving average with a week or two of lag for reporting from one year over the next in those two components and that way include them in the general CPI, but much smarter minds than mine must have some reason in place.Very much the way I have been thinking and approaching this market. Currently I suspect the way the Fed has handled inflation is to just ignore that it exists (for the most part). Just because it is not included in the statistics they use does not mean it isn't affecting everyone. If they included my costs for food, energy, cable bill, telephone, health insurance, real estate taxes, home owner's insurance-a truer picture might emerge.
It depends on how you value short term inflation risk vs equity risk. If you honestly believe that their is a bubble that will burst keeping/moving assets to cash in the short term isn't a terrible idea. You do run the risk of inflation taking off and this NOT being a bubble and being left behind.
That said, if inflation takes off I believe that the FED will HAVE to raise rates to tame inflation. Keeping inflation down is (or at least should be) a more fundamental priority of the Fed than keeping unemployment low. That could itself cause a steep decine in the market as some entities will HAVE to sell as they deleverage.
So what I am gathering from all of this(and my conscience tells me this too) is not to re enter the market at this point.
So what I am gathering from all of this(and my conscience tells me this too) is not to re enter the market at this point?
I know that my mother's financial planner is shifting more of her assets to stable dividend paying stocks as she approaches retirement (~5 years away) because of the low returns on just about everything else in this low-interest rate environment.
Would seem like very sound advice. I started switching over my portfolio also with about 5 years left before i went semi retired. When I was earning at my capacity I was all growth and cared little about yield. Now I am in a totally different position. Preferred stocks, bonds, bond funds, some gold, some oil pipelines, and some highly rated substantial divdend stocks. I am very satisfied with how things are doing but always remain vigilant in watching since even the most reliable dividend payers can run into problems-witness what happened with my GM bonds a couple years ago. One would have thought that a GM bond holder would have been treated better but getting 9¢ on the dollar just did not feel right given the bail out. But thankfully I have always had a substantial holding in MO.Over the years it has split of Kraft (which i sold as some profit taking) and PM which has just been an incredible investment while also yielding quite nicely.
Altria has done well. I mad e afew bucks off that, but then wanted to start playing some other stuff.
FDude-I am never one to give any sort of market advice-I make most of my own mistakes. But if you are looking for some yield and do not mind some risk-take a peek at NYB (I am usually not a fan of the banks) and QRE(my current favorite of the oil pipeline trusts) and GGN (an interesting gold fund). All have done very well for me but as you well know past performance means squat. Personally i would love for the banks to offer me high enough yield on CDs so i could take some of my market investments off the table-but i honestly do not see that happening for a long time (if ever).
I do quite a bit of oil trusts already... CRT and ROYT are my current holdings (had to dump a couple because of their almost entire exposure to natgas). If I did anything with banks and yield, I'd consider one of the Bank of America preferred shares. I'm still skeptical about banks, though.
You and me both-some of my worst results have been the direct results of bank investments. That is why i have stuck with German bank preferreds. DTT and DTK although they are now a bit pricey. In my earlier earning years-i kept only a small percentage in preferred stocks. Once i reached retirement age-all that changed. Even there though I try to keep diversified by industry. it is difficult since the best yielding preferreds are usually bank or investment house oriented (Morgan Stanley/Merrill etc). I do the same with common stocks that yield well-some telephone, some drug, some bank, some tobacco, some funds. For me the key, as it should be, is to never sit back and relax-I watch daily and make adjustments accordingly. As a physician, I knew nothing of any of this-all I knew was medicine. This has been like a second career and i am still learning.
As with all things in life-good things come to an end. After 17 weeks of consecutive positives (something that has never happened for me before) unless there is an incredible upward surge, this week will be a negative for me. Cannot complain however since historically September and october have always been my worst months.
That makes me wonder if you have a lot of exposure to technology, since this is their typical slump.
After having been burned before-I have had zero tech for years. I am a conservative in many respects (not all) but I detest losing hard earned money. I am a dividend investor and slow growth investor. I try to take as few chances as posible. Even that philosophy has allowed me to get burned every so often and I have to always be wary of how I diversify. As the afternoon has worn on-I have moved up some-but would need quite a rally tomorrow to end up positive for the week.
edit-if you can find time-take a look at the long term trend of the NYSE over the past 50+ years for the period of April 15th through Halloween of each year. I have felt for a long time that I would love to sell after tax day and buy back in every year on Nov 1. I haven't done it (mostly because of the dividends i would lose) but it always st4ruck me as a strategy to try.