Too early to start buying stocks? What about recently when the S&P500 bottomed at 750 during the week of Nov 20th?
I don’t mean to nitpick, but consider these points:
1) Just last week most oil stocks were at new lows with oil at $40/bbl. Trust me that oil stocks were then (and probably still are) a bargain. The oil stocks I bought then (7 days ago) are now up 15% on average, and some (like PBR) are up 20%.
Consider: 15% is a fine return for stocks in a retirement portfolio over a FULL YEAR, yet in THIS market I just showed you how easy to get that 15% in just seven days. There is money to be made, easy money. Some stocks are very worth buying NOW, and I don’t mean for a quick “pump and dump” ; I mean worthy to buy then HOLD for years to come.
2) Lot’s of GREAT stocks recently hit lows, particularly during the week of Nov 20th when the S&P500 bottomed at 750. I’m talking about stocks like Wells Fargo, which was about $22 on Nov 20th when I bought it. It is now just under $33.
How about Flextronics? I’m not saying that is a stellar CM (contract manufacturer) by any stretch, but what about at a price of $1.50 share during the week of NOv 20th? That day I bought ten grand at $1.60 and then dumped it a few days later for $2.10. I made over 20% on that in just three days. Yet that stock is now sitting at $2.40 (I should have kept it!)
So many bargains. I could go on and on. Honestly, some days it feels like shooting fish in a barrel. Too easy.
3) However, I do agree it is too early in this business cycle for anyone to just go buy random diversified stock funds (why would you do that anyway?), also too early to buy (and hold) the indexes.
Yet, don’t completely turn your back on this market. Pick through the bodies and the blood and you’ll find some real bargains!
Do you know what I did to my ROTH IRA since Oct 2007? I increased it by 82%. Absolutely no joke. I just audited all the trades in that account this weekend, to calculate my YTD net appreciation. However, I do admit that is the account in which I place all my options trades, so I used extreme risk and leverage to get that gain. That account also only contains only 25% of my total portfolio (and no way did I manage to pull 82% across my entire portfolio – dream on)
IMPORTANT: the above advice (to make quick money on speculative bets in this market) assumes that your $4K or $5K is a SMALL percentage of your overall retirement portfolio. If it isn’t then you should probably just put it in a money market fund.
