We are fully cash now but day trade daily yet always sell and return to cash by the end of the market day regardless of profit or loss. There are too many unknowns and obvious manipulations that happen overnight. We already have the experiences of 2008 so are very cautious now. We don't live off of or even touch our investments so it isn't a problem. Our pensions are more than sufficient for our needs and even then we build cash from what we don't use. We vastly over-estimated our needs in retirement. I have been cautioned for anything political so will leave it simple. The US economy is in an enormous bubble with nothing supporting it except the dollar is the world reserve currency. Our foreign policy decisions are forcing the world to reconsider this. I don't see a collapse anytime soon but civil unrest in the US might be the black swan event and oil going over $200 a barrel might do it.
Russia has recognized the entire oblasts of Luhansk and Donetsk but the LDR and DPR only physically occupy less than half of their territory. The Ukrainian Army has roughly 60,000 forces entrenched at the line of contact for over 10 months now so I expect an issue in the coming days when Russia politely asks these forces to vacate the territory belonging to LDR and DPR. Right or wrong this is going to happen. How Ukraine reacts to this and the outcome of that decision will be a potential for larger conflict. No one in Europe or the US wants to go to war with Russia. So, all we will see is a lot of rhetoric and sanctions that Russia prepared for well in advance. The reverse sanctions from Russia will also be very painful for the US. Russia exports a lot of oil to the US as it is making up for the heavy crude we used to get from Venezuela. The Fracking distillate is too light to make gasoline and must be mixed with very heavy crude which we are currently getting from Russia. Without that oil, the US is in trouble meeting domestic demands. Most lumber is coming from Russia as well, all titanium comes from Russia (essential to aerospace), and a large amount of nickel, cobalt, and aluminum as well. Anyway, my point is we are at a period in time where small things can end in disastrous results, especially to an obviously overblown market. We are also $30 trillion in debt (Russia has zero debt) and that is oging to have to come due. The problem with raising interest rates is the money used to service this debt will increase exponentially if rates go up. The Fed only has a few tools to fight inflation and they have over-printed the dollar far in excess funding risky ventures that have no potential for financial returns other than purchasing wespons.
So couple domestic unrest with foreign policy issues along with central bank problems and you get a black swan potential. Failure to predict Russian response to our ignoring their demands is the root cause of these problems in Europe. However, it is not too late to change our decisions but our exceptionalism and ignorance will prevent us from doing the right thing here which may result in suicide for the US. Canada is an example of where this is heading. Then we have China, yet another debacle in the making. Add in Syria, Venezuela, Honduras, Brazil, Taiwan, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, etc. and there are so many fires to put out any of which can result in big problems. We are vastly over-extended and our military is not capable of fighting peer adversaries let alone so many near-peer ones.
So, yes, at this point in time cash is king and we are seriously considering moving our cash to something more stable than US dollars. The question is what currency that might be and how to switch. All 5 of our pensions are from the US government and should things go really wrong and the US default our pensions will become meaningless. It is not very likely but also not impossible. I recall watching the Soviet Union go this way and the potential for a repeat is there for the US. The similarities are way too real for me.
to returns Feb 1970 to Feb 1982. Yup the gold would win assuming it costs 0 USD to move your assets to the gold. 
