REWahoo
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Interesting study by Vanguard on the equity buy/sell activity of IRA investors between 2007 and 2015. Findings:
Check out the full article and informataive charts & graphs here: https://personal.vanguard.com/us/in...avoid-panic-button-012016?SYND=RSS&Channel=AN
Fewer than 1 in 4 investors who owned Vanguard IRAs continuously from 2007 through September 2015 ever made a change that altered the stock allocation in the IRA by more than 20 percentage points in a single month. Of those who did make a change, fewer than half made more than one change.
In a typical month, 0.2% of Vanguard IRA investors made a large move out of stocks, although such moves are more frequent after stock market drops. But even in the worst month, clients were only about 1 percentage point more likely to make a major stock sale.
Even over the entire period of January 2008 through April 2009—which includes the global financial crisis—only about 1 in 15 Vanguard IRA investors made a large reduction in their stock allocation in any month.
Investors who sold out in 2008 must have felt relieved at their decision while they watched the market plummet through the financial crisis. But when you time the market, you also have to figure out when to get back in.
About 40% of those who sold out of stocks during the crisis never made a large purchase back into stocks. Perhaps the crisis simply made these investors reassess their risk tolerance. However, even the "market timers" never returned to their previous stock allocations.
Check out the full article and informataive charts & graphs here: https://personal.vanguard.com/us/in...avoid-panic-button-012016?SYND=RSS&Channel=AN