This is advice for the inexperienced and uneducated investor, especially in the computer/internet age. Here's why.

If you invested in an Index Fund at any point before July of last year, you are sitting on profits. If you invested like the poster above, you stayed in the market during the 2008 bust and it has taken you 7 years to recoup your losses and are just now back to break-even in your portfolio.

Someone used a craps analogy earlier. The shooter (the stock mkt) has been on a 7 year roll. Look at the chart I posted earlier today. It is throwing craps now. Take your money off the table and come back when all the suckers have been cleaned out.

The problem novice investors/bettor have isn't WHEN to invest/bet, it's knowing the odds and when to take profits.

You can always buy back in later when the odds are back in your favor.

Easy rule to remember:

There are 3 outcomes to any bet/investment/stock trade:

1. make $$
2. break even
3. lose $$

Inexperienced bettors/investors think 2 out of the 3 above are losers (ie. breaking even and losing), when in fact 2 of the 3 are winners! Breaking even is a WINNER ever single time, because it means you have the $$ to re-invest/bet when the odds are better.

DON'T BE AFRAID TO TAKE YOUR PROFITS OR BREAK EVEN! The house is counting on you to leave your money on the table.

Btw, the DOW is currently down another 511 points as I type this and the S&P 500 is now trading below the lows of last August's "correction".

You have been warned.

Wrong wrong wrong on so many levels. Of course if you are still at a net profit you could sell and lock in whatever profit you made but selling any index fund while it's down is doing nothing but locking in your losses. Even if it takes someone "7 years to break even" and you aren't retiring any time soon, it makes little sense to sell. But you have your opinion/investing style and I have mine. If you rely on the stock market for "cash" you need now you have much larger problems.

LOL

Way to address exactly nothing of what I posted, Chimpy. An impressive and amazingly lazy effort.

I suggest quitting. This topic is clearly over your head and you are simply regurgitating what your stock broker has repeatedly hammered into your head...just like a good little Chimp.

Like the man once said,

You got to know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run

You clearly don't, and as such have no business trying to give advice to those of us who do (much less try to tell us when we're wrong).

Btw, no one said anything about using the stock market for $$ you need today. No one. Just you.

Lol. Ok. Sell everything. Great idea. This way you can GUARANTEE you lose money. Sound investment advice.

I don't have a stockbroker. Anybody who does is lazy. I also don't "buy stocks", that's gambling at best.

You want some advice, read" Bogleheads; guide to investing"

Even spelling aside, I laughed. You seem incapable of understanding that it's not possible to lose money when the market is going down and you've taken your money off the table. By all means, though, go ahead and stay invested! How long did it take you to recoup the losses of 2008 in an Index Fund?

A: 7 years

Not long at all considering I opened my Vanguard account in 2010.

I have 30 years left before I retire. Pulling my money in & out of the market is the single best way to lose it. I appreciate your concern but I've done well so far and will continue to deposit money every two weeks until I retire, despite what those on APC & Bloomberg radio says

I don't think you'll find this rule to hold true during this particular economic crisis, unfortunately.

I have a rollover IRA with Vanguard from my days of working the ramp for FDX. I quit working there in early 07 and have not contributed to it since. When I left it had roughly 14K, fell to 9k in 08/09. Last month it was at 32k and as of today 29k. If you are just now breaking even after 08 you are investing in the wrong things.

Ignore him, he apparently thinks he's Peter Lynch, lol

I wish my current employer had some better funds. That account is down about 5200 for the year so far haha