Dow over 28,000!

[Vincenzo Corleone]

We're back over 29,000, and once again, my sum of my bank accounts plus portfolio is the highest ever, in my entire life!! I don't know how this could be, but I'll take it. If you haven't checked your balances, now's a good time to peek.

I know I'm going to regret this, but...

 

[LRDave]

This is inexplicable. (not the post above - the level of the DJI ) I am sure this is irrational exuberance and a downturn is near. The thing that keeps me from acting is: If I got out today, when do I get back in?

 

[RobbieB]

I cashed in a hundred grand and it didn't cost me anything. Hehe free money!

 

[38Chevy454]

I cashed in a hundred grand and it didn't cost me anything. Hehe free money!

That's the way, playing with the house's money!

 

[W2R]

I know I'm going to regret this, but...

Thanks for saying that! I hadn't looked yet but did, after reading your post.
ONCE AGAIN - - the highest total ever, in my ENTIRE LIFE, for portfolio plus bank balances. And, the Dow is 29,551.

(Yeah, the coronavirus has really sent us spiralling down, sure, just like the financial pundits predicted for this month... )

I am so happy! This, plus getting my new recliner today, is pulling me out of a sad mood that I am fighting hard to ditch. Thank you!

 

[NW-Bound]

I cashed in a hundred grand and it didn't cost me anything. Hehe free money!

You should do it again, Jack.

I wish my stash grew like that. You must be heavy on tech stocks. The Nasdaq has been on a tear, while the S&P and Dow are ho-hum.

 

[audreyh1]

I cashed in a hundred grand and it didn't cost me anything. Hehe free money!

Same thing happened when we bought our motorhome. LOL!

 

[Dtail]

Thanks for saying that! I hadn't looked yet but did, after reading your post.
ONCE AGAIN - - the highest total ever, in my ENTIRE LIFE, for portfolio plus bank balances. And, the Dow is 29,551.

(Yeah, the coronavirus has really sent us spiralling down, sure, just like the financial pundits predicted for this month... )

I am so happy! This, plus getting my new recliner today, is pulling me out of a sad mood that I am fighting hard to ditch. Thank you!

New high again too.
8th day high for this year.
The simple way I look at it is that it is better to have a higher balance before the next downturn. Less pressure on SORR.

 

[Time2]

I cashed in a hundred grand and it didn't cost me anything. Hehe free money!

I pulled out $120k at the end of last year and still had a 2% net worth gain for 2019.
My spending is no where near that high, I need about 70k to pay kids tuition costs in 2020. I pulled out the max I could and stay in the 0% LTCGs bracket.
Now I wish I had put it back into VOO, and just take it out as I need it.
I may still do that, when the market has a pullback

 

[Brat]

Let's get back to reality. Interest rates are so low that dividend-paying stocks like utilities are paying at a higher rate than Fed bonds. Of course, stock prices are going up because interest-paying notes/bonds are so low, maybe even paying negative rates 10 years out. I think equity prices are well above intrinsic value but where else to put your money. Puts?

 

[NW-Bound]

China just revised the number of cases of COVID-19 to add almost 15,000 more. The total is now more than 60,000.

Tomorrow, the market will go down.

 

[USGrant1962]

Let's get back to reality. Interest rates are so low that dividend-paying stocks like utilities are paying at a higher rate than Fed bonds. Of course, stock prices are going up because interest-paying notes/bonds are so low, maybe even paying negative rates 10 years out. I think equity prices are well above intrinsic value but where else to put your money. Puts?

Add that to record employment and wages, some percentage going automatically into 401(k) or pension funds, and puts seem like an extremely risky move, regardless of valuations.

Sure, there will be corrections and a bear market, but no one knows when.

 

[audreyh1]

Let's get back to reality. Interest rates are so low that dividend-paying stocks like utilities are paying at a higher rate than Fed bonds. Of course, stock prices are going up because interest-paying notes/bonds are so low, maybe even paying negative rates 10 years out. I think equity prices are well above intrinsic value but where else to put your money. Puts?

That’s the way it used to be long ago. Stocks were riskier, so they had to pay out a higher dividend to attract investors away from safer bonds.

Then the world turned upside down (massive P/E expansion after a severe period of inflation) and bonds started paying much higher yields than stocks.

Until now....

 

[Gumby]

China just revised the number of cases of COVID-19 to add almost 15,000 more. The total is now more than 60,000.

Tomorrow, the market will go down.

Maybe. But my understanding is that they changed their reporting methodology, so I'm not sure this is an escalation of the problem. The mortality rate is still just about 2%.

 

[NW-Bound]

If the market rally was due to the expectation that the outbreak was contained, then the disappointment that it was not would reverse the recent advance.

Regarding the death rate, the numbers reported are as follows by John Hopkins CSSE on 2/13/2020:

Confirmed cases 60331 / Death 1369 / Recovered 6055

Does that mean that the death rate is 1369 out of 7424 (1369+6055), or 18%?

If it takes 2 weeks to die or recover, then we can look back to Jan 29 to see that the total number of confirmed cases was 7700 on that day.

 

[RobLJ]

Another 1.5-2% up and I'll have my 2021 withdrawal in gains. I already scraped off 1/2 in early January.
If it keeps going up, I'll keep scraping off half of the stock gains and stashing in cash or short/intermediate bonds to put back in stocks after a 10-20% downturn.

This is so easy, a Neanderthal can do it (as long as the market keeps going up.)

 

[jim584672]

Who knew a global pandemic would spawn a melt up? Didn't see that coming.

 

[W2R]

Who knew a global pandemic would spawn a melt up? Didn't see that coming.

Nobody did. Why? Because market movements are just about totally impossible for investors like us to predict.

We make up these pretend cause-and-effect relationships in our minds, because we really, really, REALLY want to be able to correctly predict/control such things. It's only human nature to want to do that. But if we really could predict market movements accurately based on world events like that, then each of us would be a billionaire living on a secluded private island, and unlikely to communicate our secrets to the world.

My best advice? Ignore predictions you read, especially from those who stand to profit by "selling" their predicting capabilities.

 

[Lsbcal]

Hey W2R, who is your avatar picture of today? Who is the pretty lady ... I could guess but ....

 

[W2R]

Hey W2R, who is your avatar picture of today? Who is the pretty lady ... I could guess but ....

It's me, as a teenager living in Hawaii, back in the 1960's. And thank you for the compliment.

When I look at it, I can almost hear my late mother say "Get that hair out of your eyes!!! " Neither parent was a fan of those bangs.

We were about to go for a ride in my uncle's Jeepster, which was open to the air and that is why my aunt lent me her scarf to cover my long hair.

 

[Lsbcal]

Sweat.

 

[REWahoo]

Sweat.

Perspiration?

 

[Lsbcal]

Perspiration?

I never won a spelling bee or is that spelling-B or ... ?

And what do bees have to do with spelling?

 

[W2R]

I never won a spelling bee or is that spelling-B or ... ?

And what do bees have to do with spelling?

Courtesy of Google, here's the origin of the term "spelling bee".

 

[street]

It's me, as a teenager living in Hawaii, back in the 1960's. And thank you for the compliment.

When I look at it, I can almost hear my late mother say "Get that hair out of your eyes!!! " Neither parent was a fan of those bangs.

We were about to go for a ride in my uncle's Jeepster, which was open to the air and that is why my aunt lent me her scarf to cover my long hair.

LOL! Interesting how we can remember things like that. A great picture of you.