What is going on with the stock market?

[cilantro]

This is making me sad.  Someone tell me it's a no big deal blip and will be back to 17000 tomorrow

[arch01]

All my stop losses are triggering... we'll see what tomorrow brings.

[Deleted]

Ugh, I know! I should have never found out how to check my portfolio on line. I look daily...several times! I get all giddy when it is on the upswing but depressed when it goes down. I really shouldn't look!!

[CloudBee]

Housing updates, and global conflict. Really, it doesn't seem to be a big slam. We've overall been on an upswing and fairly stable.

[CloudBee]

A few bad days shouldn't sink a diversified portfolio or make you sick.

Remember when we were dropping 700 a day? Now that's when feeling sick is justifiable!

[cilantro]

Jul 31, 2014 13:40:28 GMT -5 CloudBee said:

A few bad days shouldn't sink a diversified portfolio or make you sick.

Remember when we were dropping 700 a day? Now that's when feeling sick is justifiable!

Fortunately, I had nothing but debt to my name back then!

[CloudBee]

Jul 31, 2014 13:40:31 GMT -5 scm1011 said:

I bought $10k worth of stocks on Tuesday

I also put in a large order yesterday.

Whatever.

heh

THAT'S WHAT I KEEP REPEATING IN MY MIND.

[barefootcontessa]

signs have been pointing towards a correction for about three weeks now. I am taking some profits and moving to cash.

[Deleted]

I put in 10k this week too. Ugh.

In better news my penny stock is up 20% too bad I only put in $200. I won't sell it because the fees eat up too much of my profit.

[ssmjlm]

It's about the long term. It's about the long term. It's about the long term.

Rinse and repeat.

[aurora]

I should buy something today. Thanks for the heads up!

[CloudBee]

Monday, Monday. Stay down!

[Deleted]

This is why my money is under my mattress.

KIDDING. It could stay down until Tuesday when my monthy auto investment takes place.

[teatimefor2]

We sold a sizable amount on Monday. Looks like it was at the right time.

[cookiecutter]

Ugh I decided to re-invest my DH's rolled over 401K on tuesday. grr

[Velvetshady]

It is my fault. I had to put in a sell order this morning so we can pay for a new well to be dug.



Because the e-fund has been exhausted by other home repairs in the last few months and fucking BoA illegally changed the terms on a line of credit acct I'd had through a previous bank and the available credit I'd been keeping open for emergencies like this isn't actually "available"--even though my statements continue to claim it is.

[arch01]

I can't decide if I should wait til Monday to place a new order or if I should do it first thing tomorrow. Over half of my (piddly) portfolio sold today, so it's a good time to try some new stocks.

This is the first time I've used stop losses, and while there's a sinking feeling when I get the trade confirmation email, it's not as bad as it could've been!

[imojoebunny]

For once my procrastination might pay off. I need to invest a lump, but have been traveling for a month, and haven't done it. I am heading home tomorrow.

[M]

Jul 31, 2014 13:30:35 GMT -5 @susan3589 said:

Ugh, I know! I should have never found out how to check my portfolio on line. I look daily...several times! I get all giddy when it is on the upswing but depressed when it goes down. I really shouldn't look!!

I'm pretty much numb to it now after 5 years of day trading, but this is how I use to be watching the commodities go uuupppp and doooowwwn. It's funny how your emotions can really get in the way of good judgment and cause you to do irrational things like close a position for fear of losing more. 

[arch01]

Jul 31, 2014 23:33:58 GMT -5 @sfgal530 said:

Jul 31, 2014 22:09:34 GMT -5 M said:

I'm pretty much numb to it now after 5 years of day trading, but this is how I use to be watching the commodities go uuupppp and doooowwwn. It's funny how your emotions can really get in the way of good judgment and cause you to do irrational things like close a position for fear of losing more. 

I could never, ever day trade, but looking at the number of people who posted about buying large positions in the market / a single stock just within the past week, I honestly was wondering how many people here do!

I couldn't either, but I've become a lot more interested in the market lately as a hobby of sorts. DH and I are about to put a chunk of our savings into the market with stop losses on it so we don't lose anything-but I'm doing a bit more research on what to buy. With everything that just was just sold off in my IRA, I also have a very rare decent size chunk of change to re-invest. I don't check daily, but I've gone from checking every few months to about 1-2x/week now.

[sillygoosegirl]

DH sent me an a article yesterday that claimed stocks are overvalued by a factor of 2 or so. It made some pretty convincing arguments.

[niq]

Aug 1, 2014 8:48:04 GMT -5 sillygoosegirl said:

DH sent me an a article yesterday that claimed stocks are overvalued by a factor of 2 or so. It made some pretty convincing arguments.

Yeah, the Shiller PE10 says it's about 60% overvalued, other measures say it's anywhere between 30-100% overvalued.

Whatever, investors are twitchy. Where else am I going to put my money, real estate? HA.

"The stock market is a giant distraction from the business of investing" -- John Bogle, founder of Vanguard.

[arch01]

Aug 1, 2014 8:54:21 GMT -5 @sfgal530 said:

Aug 1, 2014 7:13:43 GMT -5 arch01 said:

I couldn't either, but I've become a lot more interested in the market lately as a hobby of sorts. DH and I are about to put a chunk of our savings into the market with stop losses on it so we don't lose anything-but I'm doing a bit more research on what to buy. With everything that just was just sold off in my IRA, I also have a very rare decent size chunk of change to re-invest. I don't check daily, but I've gone from checking every few months to about 1-2x/week now.

I think the idea that using stop loss orders means that you don't lose anything is perhaps overly simplistic. Stop loss orders generally account for before/after hours trading swings and if you set them so close to your initial price (which you would have to do to not lose anything), you run the risk of them being sold immediately if they go down and simply paying commission / transaction fees. Stop-loss orders are not a guarantee you'll never lose money in the market. If they were, everyone would use them.

I realize that. But with a bit of planning, they can very much work in your favor to not lose money. Even with my small bit of knowledge, I've done it very successfully in my IRA.

[arch01]

Aug 1, 2014 9:27:18 GMT -5 @sfgal530 said:

Aug 1, 2014 9:13:54 GMT -5 arch01 said:

I realize that. But with a bit of planning, they can very much work in your favor to not lose money. Even with my small bit of knowledge, I've done it very successfully in my IRA.

Stop losses are a way to mitigate your risk. They are not foolproof. They require a fair amount of research to be done appropriately and while they can minimize your losses, they can also limit gains by exiting you out of a stock before an upswing.

I'm glad it has worked for you and you should keep on doing it if you think you know enough to do it effectively, but on a financial board with investors of different levels of knowledge and understanding of the market making a blanket statement that simplifies stop losses down to "never losing anything" is irresponsible. You can still lose with stop losses, and just because you haven't yet doesn't mean others wouldn't.

Which is why people need to educate themselves before doing something like using stop losses. It's not like I threw out there a "Hey, use stop losses so you don't lose anything!!" I simply stated that *we* don't lose anything. Most people on this board would probably be appalled at the fact that we are throwing most of our liquid savings into the market anyway. What works for one doesn't necessarily work for someone else.