Luckily, I manage our employee 401K, so our folks have been unscathed. Our fund choices are quite limited, and we've been in cash since November (with the exception of a 2-day buy that got us 3% in March). We made 10% last year, which is fine considering I did not start to learn T/A until June.
I've been begging people to sell for over a year, but people are having a hard time swallowing their losses. They don't think it will go down any more, they think things will go back up, and they don't want to think about how much they've lost.
Another problem is that when people hear a regular guy talking about stuff like this, they think that person is from outer space. Put them on CNBC, and they become a guru.
I can't count the number of times I've told people watch out, and they just say they'll wait for it to come back, and that they're in it for the long term. I have relatives that are down 65% that still have not sold, thinking how much worse can it get?
At least most of my immediate family is safe. My brother wants to buy IBM at 50. I've tried to tell him forget IBM at that price. It's too expensive still. |
