I'm not having fun in the market this week. I'm pretty spread out among sectors and not much is looking good in my picks unfortunately. I'm wondering if it's time to bail out of everything, take my few profits and more losses and just sit on cash for a while. Any strong opinions?

 

It wouldn't make much sense to take your ball and run home everytime the game doesn't go your way. Well, unless your longterm strategy is lose money. The hard part is always knowing when to move, but usually the best strategy is to buy and hold.

Pretty much impossible to provide a gut check without knowing your positions. Besides nobody can claim to "know" how the market is going to move. Case in point: the Dow just hit a record high on Wednesday so somebody out there made money this week.

 

Good points all. The real conflict I'm having is that I actually really like most of what I'm holding. It just isn't performing. I don't want to fall in love with a bad position and ride it into the dirt.

 

I can't claim to know your vetting process for securities, but it helps to have expert knowledge of all things (insert ticker symbol here). You'll have a lot more confidence in your strategy and you should plan for the likely conditions which will result in walking away from your position. Further, you should set aside time to keep up your knowledge base on the security after purchase, especially as market conditions change. Overall, I bet that you'll find yourself less jittery.

 

I'd suggest not panicking. It's a really turbulent time in the market is all. All my stuff is down right now but it will go that way at times. I know that what I have is good for 6-12 months out. Unless you have a specific reason to get out of something you have to just ride out the dips. It's long known that there was a selloff coming and if this is all there is then bring it.

Being red sucks but you need to look further out. Are you confident that your holdings will offer good returns down the road? Is there something you feel strongly will do better in the 6-12 month timeframe?

 

Luckily, my investment horizon is 30 years (for retirement assets), so I could give a crap what the market does in any given month.

 

You're both right. I've done my homework -- for the time being I still like what I've bought and will stop watching the price ticks quite so closely. A better bet might have been to wait before buying, but in the end I probably would have bought what I own currently (just cheaper!). The odd thing is that I can handle the volatility in the energy markets that I trade professionally -- just having to readjust my thinking to this stock stuff!

 

or dollar cost averaging it...