Wednesday sure was a nice day as it accounted for much of the S&P 500’s gain this week, which closed at 2378. Given the markets performance since the election, I’m starting to sense the beginnings of what I call the “Buy and Hold Calamity”. It goes along with the saying, “It\'s easy to be good in a bull market, but a genius performs well in bear markets”. The basis for this is that on 31 December 1999, the S&P 500 closed at 1469, on 31 December 2007, it closed at 1468, and on 10 January 2013, it closed at 1472. These thirteen years of essentially going nowhere was due to the fact the market lost approximately 50% during the bear markets of 2000 and 2008, which leads to “There’s got to be a better way”. To learn more about that way, please feel free to check out our TSP TIPS FAQ’s web page, question 1.
Wednesday sure was a nice day as it accounted for much of the S&P 500’s gain this week, which closed at 2378. Given the markets performance since the election, I’m starting to sense the beginnings of what I call the “Buy and Hold Calamity”. It goes along with the saying, “It\'s easy to be good in a bull market, but a genius performs well in bear markets”. The basis for this is that on 31 December 1999, the S&P 500 closed at 1469, on 31 December 2007, it closed at 1468, and on 10 January 2013, it closed at 1472. These thirteen years of essentially going nowhere was due to the fact the market lost approximately 50% during the bear markets of 2000 and 2008, which leads to “There’s got to be a better way”. To learn more about that way, please feel free to check out our TSP TIPS FAQ’s web page, question 1.