Good day to buy stocks?

Today might be a good day to sell stocks? :dance:
 
I sold some 'Putin Puts' yesterday, and bought them back earlier today.


That worked, but I was long overdue for a 'win'. :(

-ERD50
 
LOL! said:
Buy fixed income. You know: Do the Rebalancing Thing.
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It seems like each time I sell some Vanguard index funds I'm restricted from buying them again for another 2 months. Maybe if I was buying the ETF version it might be different? But in any case, I'm not trying to turn my mild addiction to market timing into a full time day trading job.
 
The buying restriction is only for buying with a computer mouse click. One can buy with a letter. Folks state that one can set up a one-time automated buy as well.

But yes, the ETF versions do not have frequent trading restrictions.
 
Looks like another good day to buy stocks today. I have my orders placed (index funds of course!).
 
Chuckle. I can't answer Op's question without being a smart S. Apologies in advance my tongue in cheek answers:

- Yup, Thursday is good as any other day.
- Any day is a good day to invest in stock if you are in market for a long time. Sorry :D.
 
robnplunder said:
Chuckle. I can't answer Op's question without being a smart S. Apologies in advance my tongue in cheek answers:

- Yup, Thursday is good as any other day.
- Any day is a good day to invest in stock if you are in market for a long time. Sorry :D.
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Fair enough, but in what part of the world is it still Thursday?
 
Stocks have gone up 600% since I started investing in them 25 years ago.

Trying to time over such a fractional part of the long term result seems fruitless.
 
Ready said:
Fair enough, but in what part of the world is it still Thursday?
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For today (4/4/14), it seems a Friday is also a good day to buy.

I am thinking of a(ny) Thursday in future, in midst of a full correction. If a correction happens, I will add biotech ETF to my portfolio. I missed out on previous biotech runs :blush:.
 
I'm not going to make the case for market timing, but buying on a day when the market is down 2.5% (Nasdaq) is not completely meaningless. Remember what John Bogle taught us - cost matters. If I can buy stock at 2.5% less today than yesterday, I have a 2.5% advantage over anyone who bought the same stock yesterday. We pay attention to figures down to a few basis points in looking at expense ratios. Why completely discount buying on a day when the market is down 250 basis points? Buying on the dips clearly has some merit, even if it is a form of market timing.
 
Ready said:
I'm not going to make the case for market timing, but buying on a day when the market is down 2.5% (Nasdaq) is not completely meaningless. Remember what John Bogle taught us - cost matters. If I can buy stock at 2.5% less today than yesterday, I have a 2.5% advantage over anyone who bought the same stock yesterday. We pay attention to figures down to a few basis points in looking at expense ratios. Why completely discount buying on a day when the market is down 250 basis points? Buying on the dips clearly has some merit, even if it is a form of market timing.
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Except you need to add some context to that, and then it is not so clear.

First, you would need to be in a position where you wanted to take on more equities. Now, once you get to that position, the question becomes 'do I go in now, or wait for a dip?'.

But that dip may never come, and then you are left behind. You could be stuck in 1988, with S&P500 @ $259 waiting for that buying dip, and looking at everyone else with their shares valued > $1,800.

I think history says you are better to go all in with any new purchase, though DCA can be helpful emotionally.

A 2.5% drop might be a time to rebalance, but that was probably done on the way up and generally isn't a big enough change to trigger a rebal.

-ERD50
 
Ready said:
I'm not going to make the case for market timing, but buying on a day when the market is down 2.5% (Nasdaq) is not completely meaningless. Remember what John Bogle taught us - cost matters. If I can buy stock at 2.5% less today than yesterday, I have a 2.5% advantage over anyone who bought the same stock yesterday. We pay attention to figures down to a few basis points in looking at expense ratios. Why completely discount buying on a day when the market is down 250 basis points? Buying on the dips clearly has some merit, even if it is a form of market timing.
Click to expand...

Depends on your time horizon to an extent. For example, this philosophy could have easily been used in, say, a bad day in late 2008 when the Dow fell 300 points from 12,000 to 11,700. Sure, it's better than buying the day before would have been, but sometimes it is "catching a plunging dagger".

I care less about getting a "2.5% advantage over those who bought yesterday" than in feeling like the stock is a good buy at the price, whether my intention is day trading, short term holding or long term holding.

If I'm looking at long term fund investing, I'd look at Bogle. If I were buying individual stocks looking for value I'd look to Buffett instead.
 
Early this morning I was within an estimated 0.1% portfolio value increase of selling about 3% of my equity portfolio to raise cash for 2015/2016. Then it all turned south. Guess I need a good market next week. I wouldn't be buying in this market, except for DCA setups like 401k contributions.
 
Ready said:
I'm not going to make the case for market timing, but buying on a day when the market is down 2.5% (Nasdaq) is not completely meaningless. Remember what John Bogle taught us - cost matters. If I can buy stock at 2.5% less today than yesterday, I have a 2.5% advantage over anyone who bought the same stock yesterday. We pay attention to figures down to a few basis points in looking at expense ratios. Why completely discount buying on a day when the market is down 250 basis points? Buying on the dips clearly has some merit, even if it is a form of market timing.
Click to expand...
OK, I agree with you somewhat, so why don't you contribute to the market timing thread: http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f44/lol-s-market-timing-newsletter-57042-10.html It is also important to note when you sell something, too.

Despite the drop today, some things were even cheaper on Monday.
 
The drop is my fault. I finally got around to having my 401k moved over to a Vanguard ira. It only took me 7 years. So the paperwork was faxed over today to liquidate my holdings and go to cash. The market was up at that time. It will probably take them a week or so to post this. And I will get paid the lowest close during that time.
 
dm said:
The drop is my fault. I finally got around to having my 401k moved over to a Vanguard ira. It only took me 7 years. So the paperwork was faxed over today to liquidate my holdings and go to cash. The market was up at that time. It will probably take them a week or so to post this. And I will get paid the lowest close during that time.
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The power of positive thinking? :angel:
 
My situation is a bit different from some others, so I should probably explain my market timing hobbies. I manage the 401K investments for my partner, who still works full time. I don't like any of the funds in his plan, so I opened a self directed account through Schwab where he can buy any Schwab funds with his 401K money. The problem is that each pay period the money is transferred to a money market fund within his self directed account, and then it's my job to buy index funds with the money. I split all of the money between Total Domestic and Total International Equity funds. And I generally buy these funds twice per month. So my only real efforts at timing are deciding when within the two week period to place the order.

I just like waiting for a down day to buy. I have no illusions that doing so is going to make that big of a difference given the relatively small amount going in each time. But it allows me to dabble a bit in market timing by doing so, and I like to have a little fun with it. But there are no big piles of cash sitting on the sidelines here waiting for a market drop.
 
Seriously?

My initial reaction to the OP.

Some good answers though!

I don't worry about that question anymore thank goodness - just rebalance when things get sufficiently out of whack.
 
dm said:
The drop is my fault. I finally got around to having my 401k moved over to a Vanguard ira. It only took me 7 years. So the paperwork was faxed over today to liquidate my holdings and go to cash. The market was up at that time. It will probably take them a week or so to post this. And I will get paid the lowest close during that time.
Click to expand...
It's always somebody!

Who was it on our FIRE forum who single-handedly cause oil to plunge? Many of us were very grateful. :D
 
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