I have a question.....

The_Economist

I know its not a good time on the stock markets, but has anybody realy made any decent money on them over the past five years or so.

1echidna

Certainly it would be extremely hard unless the investor had a crystal ball and was buying on the lows and selling on the highs as the stock markets jumped around. As far as I can see from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7202412.stm someone investing anytime after 1995 and holding onto their shares would be unlikely to have made significant capital gains although there are dividends to consider and some shares would have outperformed the FTSE 100. Most would have incurred significant losses.

Edit You can count me amongst those who have incurred significant losses, although, like most everyone else, I am hoping for better times.

Farway

As 1echidna says, buying low etc, I have nice profit on Morrisons, but loss on Shell & BT for instance

However as my reason for buying was long term & nice dividends any paper loss is just that, eventually they will recover, now idea if it will be in my liftime though

cheerfulcat

Between 2003 and 2007 it was hard not to make money!

earlgrey_3

cheerfulcat wrote: »

Between 2003 and 2007 it was hard not to make money!

Except for the many who failed to take their gains before they vanished in 2008 presumably. I'd suggest there's a difference between showing a paper gain in 2007 and actually making money.

cheerfulcat

Hi, earlgrey,

Certainly, anyone who was too greedy might well have seen paper profits evaporate. But a sensible investor, regularly reviewing and rebalancing his or her portfolio, would have done very well indeed.

earlgrey_3

cheerfulcat wrote: »

Hi, earlgrey,

Certainly, anyone who was too greedy might well have seen paper profits evaporate. But a sensible investor, regularly reviewing and rebalancing his or her portfolio, would have done very well indeed.

When you say "rebalance" do you mean moving from one falling asset class to another or moving to cash?

Lots of small investors didn't stay invested because they were greedy cheerfulcat, they stayed invested because their greedy or incompetent financial advisers, probably seeking to maximise their commission, didn't tell them to get out.

We've seen financial advisers on this board still encouraging punters to invest throughout this year - even to invest using borrowed money.

DebtSniper

cheerfulcat wrote: »

Certainly, anyone who was too greedy might well have seen paper profits evaporate. But a sensible investor, regularly reviewing and rebalancing his or her portfolio, would have done very well indeed.

That seems a bit harsh. Greedy?

I don't currently invest in the stock market and I'm not sure I ever will, but I am reading up on the subject. Many sources encourage investors to invest "long term", which is longer that the 4-year span of 2003-2007. So why are people holding on to their investments "greedy"?

It's a serious question, by the way, not a pop at you.

purch

Lots of small investors didn't stay invested because they were greedy

Quite right........they stayed Invested because they have bought into the "mantra" of the industry............'buy and hold', which turns investing into a crap shoot.
Some people will be long gone :eek: before the market rallies the 100% needed to get their 50% down portfolio's back to flat.