Argentina default imminent; Dow drops 300+ points, wipes out entire year's gains

You have to love the spin.

"DOW DROPS--WIPES OUT ENTIRE YEAR'S GAIN!!
As if it was a huge amount to lose--3.2%

Yet whenever I point out the markets are up, I'm told they're not really up, they're fake gains, etc.

 

I don't think Argentina's junk bonds will affect the U.S. stock market in the least.

I'm into American Funds (all over the place), Franklin Templeton (FBDIX, FKUTX, FKINX), T. Rowe Price (PRHSX rocks!), and yes American Century. I started out with American Century back in 1994. Over the years I had built up several positions with them but recently dumped them all except for the Heritage Fund.

If I look at my total return YTD across the entire portfolio it's looking like about 6% (not counting today's numbers, ha!)

 

I don't think it was so much Argentina as the fear of rising interest rates here at home. Also, one day does not make a trend. We'll have to see what happens over the next few weeks before making such judgments.

 

I don't think it was fear of interest rates rising--everybody knows they will rise. I think it was old fashioned profit taking. Agree with your wait and see attitude.

 

The U.S. burns through $29 Billion in about 16 hours. It's chump change for the U.S. Besides, they'll just print more money, right?

I do admire your dogged insistence that all good news is bad news. There is no way you could know that the majority of the jobs created in July were entry level and part time.

I'm well diversified and I don't make panic moves based on news headlines. Been there, done that. But thanks for the advice.

 

Yes, there are fees. The trick is to pick funds with a great track record (beats the S&P500) and has low annual fees. Don't make panic moves. Reallocate and rebalance. It works.

One philosophy that I can't stand is the "just buy the index funds and let your money sit there for 25 years. Don't give away your money to fund fees. You can't beat the market, so why try?" This is known as the John Bogle method of investing. Well, I did several spreadsheets looking at this and yes, if you pick the wrong funds you will get burned. But if you pick good funds you can beat the S&P, and by a lot. There was one decade 1981-1991 where the index funds beat 2 out of 3 of my American Funds. But otherwise American Funds won out. Yes, this included using the full front load 5.25% fee with American Funds.

Picking individual stocks is a tough job. I used to do it back in the 1980's, early 1990's. It was a lot easier back then. Nowadays, I like mutual funds because there are professionals with tons of experience making the picks for you. I'm a sector investor, though I remain well diversified. I will shift money into different sectors as they heat up. Let's just say that my biotech funds have been berry, berry good to me in the last couple of years. Same thing with small caps (though they were beat down about 10% recently, but are recovering.)

I do have a TD Ameritrade account, not quite $10,000, where I dabble in individual stocks. I made money on JC Penney (24%), am currently up 41% with Wendy's (seems to have stalled, might sell), made a little bit on SIRI, just got into ASX (looks promising, check it out CTB), and am losing money on RNN (late play into pharmaceuticals, should have gone with MNKD.)

Yesterday was not a good day.