Blue Light Special

[W2R]

OK, I couldn't stand it any more and just bought more VTSAX and VFWIX. I planned to do this on Friday, but The Dow is down another 135 points and it's only 11 AM Eastern time and I smell bargains!

(Consequently you can expect the market to rally SIGNIFICANTLY this afternoon, topping 13,000 before close - - such has been my luck at these attempts at minor market timing.)

Anybody else thinking of buying equities today?

 

[REWahoo]

OK, I couldn't stand it any more and just bought more VTSAX and VFWIX. I planned to do this on Friday, but The Dow is down another 135 points and it's only 11 AM Eastern time and I smell bargains!

You might want to schedule a doctor's appointment to have your testosterone level checked...

 

[Coach]

(Consequently you can expect the market to rally SIGNIFICANTLY this afternoon, topping 13,000 before close - - such has been my luck at these attempts at minor market timing.)

Want2retire, on behalf of all of us, thanks!

Coach

 

[Notmuchlonger]

How low Dow??

 

[W2R]

You might want to schedule a doctor's appointment to have your testosterone level checked...

ROFL!!! Well gee, now that I'm finally 60, heaven knows what happens with hormones at this advanced age.

Want2retire, on behalf of all of us, thanks!

Coach

You're quite welcome! Next I had better wash my car. We need rain.

How low Dow??

You mean, "How low Dow now, brown cow?"

Hot dog! It's down 162 by now. Guess the BIG rally will be after lunch.

 

[Dawg52]

Anybody else thinking of buying equities today?

Surely you gest. If I bought today, the market would surely drop 1000 points. In all seriousness, I'm glad some might see this as a buying opportunity. Maybe I will eventually get out without having to kiss that creature brewer posted.

 

[jimnjana]

Actually... I have bought equities today too (gotta stay busy at work). Bought LYG.

Jim

 

[Marquette]

Nope... my taxables buy every Friday and my 401(k) buys the 15th and 1st and my wife's 401(k) buys every two weeks. Anything aside from that would involve wiring money out of our emergency fund and that seems like too much of a bother.

 

[W2R]

Surely you gest. If I bought today, the market would surely drop 1000 points. In all seriousness, I'm glad some might see this as a buying opportunity. Maybe I will eventually get out without having to kiss that creature brewer posted.

Ew, that was some ugly creature! I hope you don't have to kiss it either (for any reason!).

That's another possibility. Instead of the Dow exceeding 13,000 this afternoon, it could drop to 8000 tomorrow and for the forseeable future. Oh well. It seems I continually have to teach myself not to market-time by means of repeated bad experiences at it.

Actually... I have bought equities today too (gotta stay busy at work). Bought LYG.

Jim

Great!! Let's hope we have some good luck with this.

I have been DCA'ing into VTSAX and VFWIX on the 14th of each month, so really I just jumped the gun a little. Couldn't help it!

Nope... my taxables buy every Friday and my 401(k) buys the 15th and 1st and my wife's 401(k) buys every two weeks. Anything aside from that would involve wiring money out of our emergency fund and that seems like too much of a bother.

I probably should have arranged automatic investing like you did, to avoid the above temptations....

 

[dex]

No vanguard emerging markets?

 

[W2R]

No vanguard emerging markets?

I do have a little VEIEX, but only about 1-2% of my portfolio. That is money that I have designated my "play money" to follow my whims and invest as I please. VEIEX has been doing terribly lately, though.

What I bought today is as designated in my plan, which I thrashed out last winter. I am looking forward to finding out about the foreign tax credits with VFWIX, which will be about 13% of my portfolio once I am fully invested.

20% VTSAX Total Stock Market
13% VFWIX FTSE All-World Ex-US
2% play (mostly VEIEX Emerging Markets right now)
30% VWIAX Wellesley
35% bonds/MM

OK, it's 3:22 Eastern Time and we are down 178 points! Let's hear it for a huge rally tomorrow... !!

 

[Animorph]

I already (semi prematurely) blew through my cash to stock allocations for the market -20% and -25% points a while back. So I really should wait for -30% or so before adding more equities. I might be able to make a few shifts without worrying about taxes if things continue down. It gives me something to do at least.

The foreign tax credit stuff was pretty irritating if you had more than $600 in foreign taxes. I had to dig up how much foreign income my several international funds had. That info was posted about a week before 4/15, and I had to go directly to fund company sites to get it. I guess income had to be detailed by country before 2007, so at least I missed that.

Dan

 

[packrat44]

How low Dow??

Are you talking Chinese?

 

[W2R]

I already (semi prematurely) blew through my cash to stock allocations for the market -20% and -25% points a while back. So I really should wait for -30% or so before adding more equities. I might be able to make a few shifts without worrying about taxes if things continue down. It gives me something to do at least.

The foreign tax credit stuff was pretty irritating if you had more than $600 in foreign taxes. I had to dig up how much foreign income my several international funds had. That info was posted about a week before 4/15, and I had to go directly to fund company sites to get it. I guess income had to be detailed by country before 2007, so at least I missed that.

Dan

Thanks for the heads up, Dan! I'll be on the alert to find out the details next spring.

 

[Zoocat]

Thanks for reminding me, Want2Retire! I need to make another ROTH contribution and today looks like a good day!

 

[FIREd]

W2R, I am buying too...

I bought US large caps and International equities with an emphasis on Emerging Markets on Monday (scheduled VCA into taxable), and I rebalanced the wife's 401K today (I put to work a lot of the cash which had been accumulating in the account for the past 6 months). I also bought some more VG REITs and VG Emerging Markets this afternoon (non scheduled VCA into taxable) using a chunk of our emergency fund (oops!)... Overall I added about 10% to my EM position since Monday.

 

[W2R]

Thanks for reminding me, Want2Retire! I need to make another ROTH contribution and today looks like a good day!

Sure does! I didn't realize that you were still working, like me! For some reason I thought you were already retired. I guess next year will be my last Roth contribution.

W2R, I am buying too...

I bought US large caps and International equities with an emphasis on Emerging Markets on Monday (scheduled VCA into taxable), and I rebalanced the wife's 401K today (I put to work a lot of the cash which had been accumulating in the account for the past 6 months). I also bought some more VG REITs and VG Emerging Markets this afternoon (non scheduled VCA into taxable) using a chunk of our emergency fund (oops!)... Overall I added about 10% to my EM position since Monday.

Emerging Markets have taken a beating lately, so I think it was probably a really good time to buy.

 

[Linney]

OK, I couldn't stand it any more and just bought more VTSAX and VFWIX. .....Anybody else thinking of buying equities today?

WTR,

I bought today too -- VTSMX. Some day I will qualify for the VTSAX Admiral shares!

Every quarter I upload the excess from my credit union savings account to my Vanguard MM account and then I buy on the next available dip. That recent 400 point drop followed by today's 200 point drop was my trigger to make this latest buy. I do stress somewhat over thoughts on the market dropping even more the next day. Thank goodness most of my investing is via DCA into my 401k so the bulk of my retirement investing is automatic.

--Linney

 

[W2R]

WTR,

I bought today too -- VTSMX. Some day I will qualify for the VTSAX Admiral shares!

Every quarter I upload the excess from my credit union savings account to my Vanguard MM account and then I buy on the next available dip. That recent 400 point drop followed by today's 200 point drop was my trigger to make this latest buy. I do stress somewhat over thoughts on the market dropping even more the next day. Thank goodness most of my investing is via DCA into my 401k so the bulk of my retirement investing is automatic.

Good move to buy Total Stock Market yesterday! Or at least, it seemed so to me. Guess we will see.

My 401K (TSP) contributions are automatic, every two weeks, as well. I could set up automatic contributions to my taxable account, but haven't. As for the market, my crystal ball tells me that today it might not move much and tomorrow it might go down again (or up?) If my crystal ball were working, my accounts would be much larger than they are at present.

At least I think I did better this time than I did in March, when I invested late on a day when the market was down. On the following day while my investment was being processed, the market surged markedly. So, I was unknowingly buying high.

 

[simple girl]

WTR,

I bought today too -- VTSMX. Some day I will qualify for the VTSAX Admiral shares!

Every quarter I upload the excess from my credit union savings account to my Vanguard MM account and then I buy on the next available dip. That recent 400 point drop followed by today's 200 point drop was my trigger to make this latest buy. I do stress somewhat over thoughts on the market dropping even more the next day. Thank goodness most of my investing is via DCA into my 401k so the bulk of my retirement investing is automatic.

--Linney

Linney,

We put in a buy for VTSMX yesterday, too (we buy once every 2 or 3 weeks). However, the transaction won't actually go through until the end of today. Our luck (as has happenned in the past) is that there will be a big rally today. Did you put your buy in yesterday or the day before? To my knowledge, with Vanguard, you can't put a buy in and get it to go through that same day. There is always a delay. This is one of the things that does really frustrate me with Vanguard. Oh well, I know, shouldn't be trying to time the market, right?

 

[W2R]

Linney,

We put in a buy for VTSMX yesterday, too (we buy once every 2 or 3 weeks). However, the transaction won't actually go through until the end of today. Our luck (as has happenned in the past) is that there will be a big rally today. Did you put your buy in yesterday or the day before? To my knowledge, with Vanguard, you can't put a buy in and get it to go through that same day. There is always a delay. This is one of the things that does really frustrate me with Vanguard. Oh well, I know, shouldn't be trying to time the market, right?

simplegirl, when I bought these equity funds I actually did it as an exchange from VMMXX (Vanguard's Prime Money Market). That was yesterday at 10:58 A.M. Eastern time. I just checked my account and the exchange was completed at yesterday's closing price. If you are uploading the money from your bank, it takes quite a bit longer as I recall since the upload takes some time.

 

[simple girl]

simplegirl, when I bought these equity funds I actually did it as an exchange from VMMXX (Vanguard's Prime Money Market). That was yesterday at 10:58 A.M. Eastern time, and the exchange was completed at yesterday's closing price. If you are uploading the money from your bank, it takes a bit longer as I recall.

VERY interesting! I'd be willing to move our "stash of cash" to VMMXX for this benefit alone! Wow, thanks for the tip. I will be investigating it this weekend.

 

[Poundkey]

Linney,

We put in a buy for VTSMX yesterday, too (we buy once every 2 or 3 weeks). However, the transaction won't actually go through until the end of today. Our luck (as has happenned in the past) is that there will be a big rally today. Did you put your buy in yesterday or the day before? To my knowledge, with Vanguard, you can't put a buy in and get it to go through that same day. There is always a delay. This is one of the things that does really frustrate me with Vanguard. Oh well, I know, shouldn't be trying to time the market, right?

Actually, I think you can get it at that days price. Seems like you have to put in your order an hour before the close of that day's markets. For me (central time zone) I believe 2:00 pm is the cut off time.

 

[W2R]

Actually, I think you can get it at that days price. Seems like you have to put in your order 2 hours before the close of that day's markets. For me (central time zone) I believe 2:00 pm is the cut off time.

I had thought the cutoff time was 1:00 PM or 1:30 PM Eastern time, but a new or infrequent poster messaged me a few days ago when I was lamenting about not getting in on the big drop in the Dow last week. I believe he told me he put in an order at 4:00 PM Eastern and it still went through. So now I am a little confused about the timing. Maybe he was just fortunate or maybe the cutoff time is later than either of us thought!

 

[windsurf]

I think the Vanguard instructions say that it will be processed on the day received. I put in for a transfer from the Prime Money Market Fund to 25k of Vanguard Diversified Equity Fund at around 3:40 EST and it immediately showed as a pending transaction then this a.m. the funds had transferred at yesterday's closing price.

I submitted for Vanguard's Planning service a few months ago and started averaging in per the recommendations. Quite a chunk was designated for the Diversified Equity Fund along with, of course the Total Stock Market and Total Bond Market indexes. It is a newer fund that did a little under 6% since inception in '05. They have me slated to go 20% of total portfolio in this fund. Any thoughts as to why they would be thinking that this fund is such a good idea?