Do you invest in the index funds Djefferis? What's your thougths on them.
I used to dabble in individual stocks (still do to a small extent) but, except for the money I invest with a financial advisor, I mainly invests in index funds (foreign and domestic) on my own.
Yes
My feeling is simply you’re never going to “out pick” the market as a whole long term - unless you do a significant amount of research and regularly keep at it and trade.
Index’s allow you to match the market - while narrowing down to specific sectors using ETFs - for the average investor - this is probably gathering way to go.
The expense ratios on these ETFs for index’s are low as they just track the index - not a lot of advisement needed. Supplement those with a few sectors that you rotate in and out of as market conditions/performance dictate.
I mean why pay some advisor 2-3% of the total assets under management a year - with no guarantee they are going to “beat” the market - or even return enough to cover their fee. Yes - in general they will maintain your portfolio to always yield 3-4% - so they can say they “made” you money - but unless I am getting 3%+ above market returns - they aren’t making me a cent. Worse - if I lose - they don’t offer a damn rebate. Hell - even offshore books feel bad and give you back 2% on your action win or lose.
Key as always is moderation and diversification. There is almost always a “winning” market and a “losing” market - of course for most small guys - it only matters what the S&P 500 does and to a lesser extent the Dow/Nasdaq 100. Keep between 50-70% in stocks - and balance in bonds/cash and then a small percentage in speculative and you’ll be fine.
