Excellent reading. I especially liked, "As of the end of March, 1999, with the market near an all-time high, less than 5% of stocks were within 5% of their highs. In fact, a full 75% of stocks were down 20% or more from their highs and amazingly 50% of stocks were down 33% or more. Some odds.
So you play it smart and invest with the pros - you buy mutual funds. The odds actually get worse. As of June 1, 1999, only 11% of funds had a return of 15% or better for the previous 12 months. 32% had returns of zero or less. The odds were three times more likely you would have a fund that lost money over the past year than made 15%.
How about the past 5 years? Only 1,592 funds in a universe of 10,400 funds made more than 10% for the past five years. That's only 15% of the funds. In fact, only 4,187 funds have a positive return over the past 5 years. (If you are thinking, but I only need to pick a couple of those 4,000 positive funds. Positive includes funds that only made 1%.) "
Of course everyone I talk to only owns the good funds. <g>
Good Luck,
Lee |
