I'm officially worth half of what i was

[itschris]

Well.... as the blood bath continues in the market, I've steadily watched my net worth shrink over the past four weeks. As of close today, I'm officially at half my worth (portfolio-wise) that I was just four weeks ago. I got killed today and lost about $23K in just one personal account.

Being in the finance industry, I know this is just the way it goes and things will turn around and I'll be right back where I started and beyond in the foreseeable future, however, it always hurts even if it's only on paper.

Being that beyond the fear-mongers in the media, there's little fundamental evidence to support these sorts of market declines, it's a bitter pill to swallow. My faith is not shaken, however, and I will be buying tomorrow. To me, it's sorda like 60" Kuro being mistakenly put on the clearance rack for $1000 - you'd be stupid not to buy it.

 

[yettitheman]

Where is that Kuro at on sale???

 

[ParadigmDawg]

I hear you brother!

 

[MinusTheBear]

Are you getting beat on your previous investments or the 20k you just invested like a week ago?

 

[itschris]

Are you getting beat on your previous investments or the 20k you just invested like a week ago?

Overall. I've invested close to about $30K over the past two weeks, cashing out of cash equivalents. I haven't specifically tracked those dollars since I've bought into things I've already owned and what not, but I'd say if I had to guess I'd be down 15-20% on that new money. Some stuff has actually made decent returns and I'll end up gaining a ton of upside leverage when things return to normal. The big chucnk is my mutual funds in my 401k which look like the coyote falling off a cliff in the Road Runner cartoons.

It's all long term money, but it still makes you cringe. If we could just get the politicians and the media to stop hyping the doom and gloom, we could break the cycle of this self fulling prophecy.

 

[MidnightSensi]

I've invested close to about $30K over the past two weeks, cashing out of cash equivalents.

It's all long term money, but it still makes you cringe. If we could just get the politicians and the media to stop hyping the doom and gloom, we could break the cycle of this self fulling prophecy.

...because all the hype that went into Wallstreet wasn't a self fulfilling prophecy.

 

[aberkowitz]

It didn't help that we had that ridiculous short-sale policy in place that finally got lifted today. That never should have been agreed to in the first place.

 

[j_garcia]

As long as it is still on paper (or the computer screen as the case may be), you technically haven't lost anything. As long as you aren't selling it off, you have the opportunity for it to at least go back up.

 

[mazersteven]

Purchase Ford stock.

 

[mazersteven]

I have one question. Being in finance industry, why haven't you moved the money to safer waters? Or pulled out totally for a while.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

He is doing the right thing, it's long term....

I have one question. Being in finance industry, why haven't you moved the money to safer waters? Or pulled out totally for a while.

 

[mazersteven]

He is doing the right thing, it's long term....

I just don't know about that.

A stock I have been following, and investing in for over 10 years is ADP. If I invested in ADP Oct 98, and left my money there to today Oct 08. I would have lost .53 a share.

Long term

I think the term long term was something the generations before us did. Today I just don't know.

 

[MUDSHARK]

He is doing the right thing, it's long term....

60K *** whipping for me over the past year.

The bottom should be near although that bottom will have to be retested at least twice before we're out of the woods. There is massive panic right now which presents some great long-term opportunities if one dares.

I'm more worried about the company prospects in the 2-4 year range. Even with efforts to diversify we still have 35 percent of our sales space center related. With one presidential candidate luke warm toward space and the other near socialist and anti-space our prospects are not bright in the long-term.

 

[Midcow2]

time to buy

put in 200k$ last week thinking asbout another $100k tomorrow

 

[MidnightSensi]

I have one question. Being in finance industry, why haven't you moved the money to safer waters? Or pulled out totally for a while.

I don't know about the postee ... but from the stock market people I know they just have a socially acceptable gambling habit. "I can't pull out now, I'm gunna make it back@#$@!#$!@#" "Long term" "I'm doing the right thing" "If I can just wait it out my luck will come back" "stock tips" (same **** as a horse tip).

 

[mtrycrafts]

Being that beyond the fear-mongers in the media, there's little fundamental evidence to support these sorts of market declines, ...

Yes, fear. That is a powerful human trait that drives much of this as it does the oil speculators, no?

I have been too scared to look

 

[itschris]

I just don't know about that.

A stock I have been following, and investing in for over 10 years is ADP. If I invested in ADP Oct 98, and left my money there to today Oct 08. I would have lost .53 a share.

Long term

I think the term long term was something the generations before us did. Today I just don't know.

Well, I'm not planning on selling my current positions. These are longer term investents in a solid array of investments. Fundamentally, most of the investments are sound, but are collateral damage from the market panic.

Theorhetically, yes, you can look back and say I should have sold everything and held the cash and not invested the additional cash. However, selling would have generated huge capital gains issues for me, so it's one evil or the other. I have hedged, but at the same time, I don't think most folks, even the most sr. analsysts have the kind of crystal ball to see the market dropping below 9k. If so, we would have all been millionairs today.

Part of the strategy is buying down, lowering your average cost. It's not dollar cost averaging, but somewhat similar in strategy. If the investments are fundamentally sound you build tremendous leverage on the upside. If you don't think there is upside, then you shouldn't be in them in the first place.

This has happend before to one degree or another. I got spanked in the tech wreck to some degree, not horribly, but a little, but regained and surpassed my buy in, only to get demolished after 911. My portfolio came back just fine over all of that, and it will certainly come back after this passes too.

Sure, I wish I could see the future and know when to dump everything high, put it in cash, and rebuy everything low and redo the cycle and make money hand over fist. It just doesn't work that way. I'm still up over my 10 year rolling period, so I feel comforted by that. When things resurge, whether it's soon or a few years from now, I'll have a lot of momentum with significantly more shares working for me. On mutual fund side of things I've been dollar cost averaging on a weekly basis for the past year, up from monthly, so that will really drop my average cost gaining me significant moementum there as well.

Of course all of this is predicated in the faith in the market and global solvency. If it really all goes away, we'll all have much bigger problems then losing our investments. We'll have true unbridled chaos and anarchy. I believe that. Fortunatley, I'm diversified well, not just in stocks, but cash , cash equivalents and precious metals.

 

[MUDSHARK]

In addition much of the gains will occur before the general consensus that the bear market has passed. If one waits then much of the loss will not be recovered. I am not a market timer either.

 

[MinusTheBear]

Well, I'm not planning on selling my current positions. These are longer term investents in a solid array of investments. Fundamentally, most of the investments are sound, but are collateral damage from the market panic.

Theorhetically, yes, you can look back and say I should have sold everything and held the cash and not invested the additional cash. However, selling would have generated huge capital gains issues for me, so it's one evil or the other. I have hedged, but at the same time, I don't think most folks, even the most sr. analsysts have the kind of crystal ball to see the market dropping below 9k. If so, we would have all been millionairs today.

Part of the strategy is buying down, lowering your average cost. It's not dollar cost averaging, but somewhat similar in strategy. If the investments are fundamentally sound you build tremendous leverage on the upside. If you don't think there is upside, then you shouldn't be in them in the first place.

This has happend before to one degree or another. I got spanked in the tech wreck to some degree, not horribly, but a little, but regained and surpassed my buy in, only to get demolished after 911. My portfolio came back just fine over all of that, and it will certainly come back after this passes too.

Sure, I wish I could see the future and know when to dump everything high, put it in cash, and rebuy everything low and redo the cycle and make money hand over fist. It just doesn't work that way. I'm still up over my 10 year rolling period, so I feel comforted by that. When things resurge, whether it's soon or a few years from now, I'll have a lot of momentum with significantly more shares working for me. On mutual fund side of things I've been dollar cost averaging on a weekly basis for the past year, up from monthly, so that will really drop my average cost gaining me significant moementum there as well.

Of course all of this is predicated in the faith in the market and global solvency. If it really all goes away, we'll all have much bigger problems then losing our investments. We'll have true unbridled chaos and anarchy. I believe that. Fortunatley, I'm diversified well, not just in stocks, but cash , cash equivalents and precious metals.

Whats your thoughts on buying silver right now?

 

[itschris]

Whats your thoughts on buying silver right now?

I'm not a broker anymore. I'm an analyst now. Don't take this as a recommendation, but just my two cents. I think silver is about twelve and a quarter right now, current gold futures are about 925depending on the contract date. Again, I wish I had my crystal ball. I think precious metals are always a solid investment as part of a diversified portfolio. I don't think you're gonna make some kind of huge profit in the next few months buying either, because often times their price is directly inverse to the market and economy. If you think the economy will continue to get signfiicantly worse, then I'd buy... tangible value becomes ever more critical as things worsen. Gold is real... a stock certifcate is not. That's an oversimplification, but holdx fairly true. I mean prices are high for both right now, so you'd be buying on the high side... but depending on your reasoning, it could be a safe strategy for securing tangible value.