Billy you're right and wrong. You were right to sell high and you are right to buy low. The reason advisors say to stay in no matter what is because over the long haul you will come out ahead. That of course depends on each person's time horizon. If you were already at retirement or close to it; thenyou should have been taking more defensive positions since the 4 quarter of 2007. For those of you that are at least 10 years or more away from retirement you need to stay the course. You should continue to purchase on a monthly basis and take advantage of these historic lows. There is a lot of emotion driving the current fluctuations. When people can take a step back and take a deep breath then things will turn around. Keep in mind that no one is going to sound a bell giving the all clear sign to jump back in. You want to position yourself to be in place for when the market will start recovering. The market typically will have a sector that is up. In other words, when stocks are down; bonds would be up and vice versa. The issue we have now is that the teeter-totter broke. Everything is down. You might say well I'll take out some CD's. You could, but with the banking sector being as unstable as it is and the FDIC not having the assets to cover a big bank failure carries almost as much risk. Plus if your money is locked up in a CD and the market recovers you run the risk of being priced out of the market. When I see how downgraded solid companies such as GE and others are it confirms that there is a lot of emotion out there. Look for the values in companies that manufacture the staples of our economy. In other words food (General Mills), health & beauty (Proctor & Gamble). No matter what happens, there are things that we as Americans will continue to buy because we continue to live our lives.
At this point the Feds need to keep their advice in mind and be patient. Give the stuff they have put in place time to work itself out. The market will correct itself. It is doing that with oil and gasoline.
'Bull markets are born in pessimism; grow in optimism, and die in euphoria.'
- Sir John Templeton
Hang in there folks. This too shall pass.
Heavy C