Yes, I often feel similar. Sometimes for me the psychological drain is because of the extreme market volatility we are seeing. Sometimes, its just the news -- the domestic automaker issue - the debacle display by the three idiot car honchos, the fits and starts of the bailout $700B, lack of checks and balances, conflicting ideas about what the problems are, how to solve them, when or/if they will even be solved - all discouraging, if not terrifying.
Otoh, things were pretty bleak too around '73-'74 with stocks, with the war,with high inflation, OPEC issues, etc. etc. We got through that, we'll get through this too (maybe -g-).
Maybe getting flushed from trading isn't such a bad thing. There's also investing though. Anybody who calls himself/herself a value investor and isn't buying stocks these days is anything but a value investor. From what I read even the perma-bear deep value pros are finding pockets that are cheap on an absolute basis and they seem to be buying - Grantham, Klarman for example. Buying deeply undervalued stocks and holding them until Mr. Market pays up for them is a venue that historically rewarded people who bought when times were difficult. So they say anyway. |
