Hey MM - I feel your pain. Everyday I open up my Microsoft Money file to do some banking I take a glance at my portfolio and sure enough it is once again lower than the day before.

This is where the rubber hits the road for investors. Do they have the confidence in their strategies and the will power to act on facts and not feelings. There is millions of dollars being lost out there because of this. I have to admit I have thought about selling, but don't because I think back to historical stock market returns and over time the market always ends up higher. Just my opinion though.

The Dividend Guy

I definitely believe that the stock market will return and surpase it's high based on historical reference. I do however think that there is always money to be made in the market. So if you had a lot of cash on hand it will soon be a great time to get started investing.

I personally jumped out of the market altogether about 2 weeks ago. That is aside from my employer sponsored 401K.

My last sale was AAPL at $144/sh (after having bought it about 40 days previous at $120/sh).
The last time I checked, it was more than $6/sh less than I had originally purchased it at.

I didn't try to time it that way, but boy did I get lucky! I did admittedly get in on VMW for a couple days, and made about 10% on it in those couple of days, but I only bought 50 shares.

I had considered shorting GOOG (back when it was around $540), but wasn't sure how to do that.

Does anyone know how you can do this? Is it buy at a certain price, and predict that it will be no more than $X by a certain date.

mm, your blog is very informative and educational, but if I may take exception to the common expectation of "consistent appreciation" in a stock portfolio.

As we have all experienced, common stock is risky and values can fluctuate a lot. While it is great that you are trying to stick to a "value" investment strategy, you MUST have a real, intellectually honest, gut check with yourself with regard to losing money in the stock market. In other words, how would you really feel if you lose 10%, 20% or even 30% in the market in a span of months? How about 50%? Laughing it off? Depression? Will it affect your relationship w/ your family? If you haven't even thought about how you will psychologically react in these tough scenarios, YOU DON'T REALLY HAVE AN EXIT STRATEGY. You are just going by a wing and a prayer, which is not how you should run your money.

well considering buffett just bought BAC yesterday, i'd say there was some value in the stock. i had sell triggers set, but prices never hit the prices. i did buy lots yesterday though. the bigger picture to look as the fact the markets are still up on the year. sucks if you bought high, but for the long terms stocks, you are still up.

Thank you for all the comments. I bought some AXP yesterday too.