Quote from: umair127 on August 18, 2014, 01:24:38 PM

Quote from: zolace on August 18, 2014, 01:18:29 PM

Quote from: umair127 on August 18, 2014, 01:14:49 PM

Quote from: zolace on August 16, 2014, 11:03:22 AM

Quote from: Methodise on August 15, 2014, 06:36:37 PM

Quote from: zolace on August 15, 2014, 05:51:40 PM

Quote from: Rigon on August 15, 2014, 05:42:20 PM

Quote from: zolace on August 15, 2014, 05:21:00 PM

Quote from: Rigon on August 15, 2014, 05:03:42 PM

real estate, stocks, anything?

the recession dealt quite a bit of damage to me. so i chickened out and mostly missed the boat.

i guess i will catch up with ya on the next downswing

I buy and hold index funds, so my performance has been almost exactly the same as the market. But I started a new, higher paying job in September 2008, so I had a lot of free cash flow and put every red cent I had into stocks (through index funds) when they were cheap. I timed the market in that respect.

I don't own any real estate, bonds or bond funds, individual stocks, precious metals, or anything else. The simple reason is that they are either more expensive, more work or have weaker performance than stocks, or all three (for example, in the case of real estate).

But of you bought a house you could live in it while waiting for it to turn profit. A house holds value a lot better than stocks. And even if the value goes down to a worthless level, you can still make use (and profit) of it unlike stocks .The key question is, when did you start investing

A residence is a nonperforming asset. It does not generate any profit. And the rate of return on residential real estate is vastly inferior to stocks--about half in real numbers, even lower in real return. That's not to mention the lack of liquidity in residential real estate and all of the taxes, upkeep, insurance, etc. It is also, as many learned in the past 6 years, among the least diversified and most risky ways to hold capital. 1992, but in a more serious way in 1996.

Residential real estate does provide a rental yield (profit), which can be attributed to a homeowner's returns. But real estate investors have a lot of delusion about the superiority of their (inferior) assets. Public equity does outperform residential real estate, and especially on a risk-adjusted basis, given the lack of scope for diversification in real estate investments.

The psyche of the average investor is a strange thing. Everyone knows that you should buy low and sell high and, as Buffett is always quoted, be greedy when everyone is scared and scared when everyone is greedy. But in practice people tend to do the exact opposite. They tend to be willing to take on more risk and buy more stock when prices are high, when they should be eating up risk in bear markets instead. The one good thing is it creates opportunities for bear market buyers.

because you never know when it's "low" or "high" regardless of how high or low it really is.

True, attempting to time the market is always risky business. But a bear market is easily defined and even easier to spot, so it's not hard to buy in a bear market. Don't be too concerned with buying at the absolute low or selling at the absolute high.

No. You can't identify the "real" bear or bull market, just like you can't determine whether today's price is low, or high. in the past five years alone, there have been many moments where the market can be interpreted either way.

Yes, you certainly can.