You guys/gals? are obviously smart and in tune with what’s going on in the markets. But you have to realize that the vast majority of people out there, myself included, might not have the detailed technical knowledge (or motivation) that you have. We don’t track individual companies, but rather groups of them. It’s not that we don’t care, it’s just a matter of daily cost/benefit analysis of our time.
In hindsight you both are looking pretty smart. I was too, up until about 6 months ago. I had transferred all of my REIT fund holdings a while back to an equal measure of cash, energy, and emerging market mutual funds…with the idea to hold them for a year and re-evaluate. REITs tanked soon thereafter and the other funds were performing quite well. Then energy and emerging markets started to drop, but I didn’t budge, sticking to my 1-year strategy. Then, in the last couple months, energy and emerging markets absolutely tanked, along with pretty much everything else other than the inverse funds and some singular stocks here and there. Heck, today even gold and silver are down 10% and 43%, respectively, from their 1-year highs. My point is that amateurs like us DO pay attention, just not as much attention as you do.
In hindsight, can you recommend some good alternative FUNDS that others like me can invest in order to profit or at least preserve what we have? I am not really interested in individual stocks because I don’t have the time/motivation to constantly track them, but I am open to suggestions.