That's the difference between delving deeper than "the market" and working on information within a sector. Yes, it's easier to find 50% sale prices on individual stocks or within sectors. I saw such an opportunity with WDC and took it around about August. However you're highly unlikely to find 50% sale prices on a broad-based index... it's called diversification and protects you from wild swings of being too heavily concentrated if you don't have the time/desire to analyze things more closely.PhotoJ89 wrote:George the original one wrote:Disabuse yourself of this notion. Even the 2007-08 crash, the biggest one since 1929, was only 35% and it took a year or more to play out. Most people who had cash to play with were too scared to buy.PhotoJ89 wrote:I'd be happy to move 50+% of my NW into index funds after we see a ~50% crash in stocks.
I put 10k into junior gold miner stocks in December, which were 65% off their August highs at the time. Everyone was calling for gold to retest it's 2015 low or even go below $1,000. Sentiment was overwhelmingly negative on every front. Also put money into Uranium miners at the depths of the most brutal bear market in the history of the sector.
Looking for killer moves by timing them, like your gold mining stocks, also makes it difficult to secure an income. The timing of such moves is not going to align with paying bills, so it's necessary to carry a larger than normal cash reserve. Holding bonds or dividend paying stocks or rental properties provides an income stream.