This market is making me nervous!

[Nika]

This kind of climb is crazy... I look at my balances in disbelief and and wonder if collective jet fuel will run out any second and we are in for a nose dive.

I'm feeling richer every week. I love that feeling. But I know that it can, and will, eventually go in the other direction. But being on for the ride up is the only way to not go down too deep on the ride down. So I guess I should not try to time it. But man, it is easy to get used to a good thing!

[UnknownXV]

I have a feeling that it's mainly speculation at this point.. I don't think it will last. I'm not sure it will crash, but it's silly to think a good wave will go on forever.

MY biggest fear is and will be inflation so long as Qe3 stays in effect. $40 billion a month in monopoly money entering the system. Sigh.

[kv968]

I too wonder how much longer this can go because, the Fed's intervention aside, things aren't looking that great and earning season is just around the corner. Fedex and Intel already said so much in their recent reports.

There's nothing stopping you from taking some profits and/or setting some trailing stops on individual securities.

[FireBal989]

It may last, it would be great if it did, but you never know, what's great is you can take the profits now, or watch them keep growing :-)

[bjl584]

Pretty much everything I've read from analysts agree that the market is on a sugar high. We might not get a hard crash, but there will definitely be a pullback. Maybe even a correction. If you've made some gains, then it might be a good time to sell and lock them in. I have some cash sitting on the sidelines that I will be using to buy if things do correct.

[EEinNJ]

Perhaps you should reexamine your risk tolerance. If you're nervous when things go up, I wonder if you'd panic when they go down?

Try to take a longer view. If you've been investing for a while, you'd see there's been some very bad years, and weak recovery, in recent years. There are times, though, when markets rally, and you have to be in it to win. Nobody knows when those times are, though. It is impossible to point to events, news, or even monetary policy, and say "Ah-hah! Now's the time to sell (or buy)". There are lots of highly paid, smart people on Wall St. who would have you believe they know, but they're wrong as often as right.

[Nika]

Perhaps you should reexamine your risk tolerance. If you're nervous when things go up, I wonder if you'd panic when they go down?

My portfolio is very agressive, and always has been.
Holding throught the downturns has not been my problem. But when you are up 10k in August and than up another 10K in just first 2 weeks of September, you start to think this is a bit crazy, because fundamentals of those companies did not change that much in this short time. And I so like my new portfolio balance, it will be hard to see it go.

[kv968]

My portfolio is very agressive, and always has been.
Holding throught the downturns has not been my problem. But when you are up 10k in August and than up another 10K in just first 2 weeks of September, you start to think this is a bit crazy, because fundamentals of those companies did not change that much in this short time. And I so like my new portfolio balance, it will be hard to see it go.

Again, nothing wrong with taking a little profit especially if you're very aggressive. I personally have been selling a bit here and there into this rally myself. I've missed some of the upswing but I'll buy back if and when there's a pullback.

I know, I know...market timing and all that

[dczech09]

Take a long-term view on things in the stock market. What happens today or tomorrow does not necessarily matter in the long-run.

For example, if you were to chart a stock market index such as the S&P 500 until today, you would see that the socio-economic events that were catastrophic to the market at the time are merely blips on the radar.

Even the Great Depression looks like a mere hiccup on some charts.

My view is this:
Who cares if the stock market goes up or down today. I have about 40 years until I retire.

You may have less time than I do, but try to take more of a "glass is half full" perception.

[Cassius King]

I too like the gains in my portfolio over the last month or so. That being said, I'm starting to build some cash positions and just started thinking about FSG today.

[Thrif-t]

Yep I sold some of my gains too and parked the proceeds in cash for a while.

[JBinKC]

It is great you made a profit but if you are nervous under the most generous monetary policy conditions in my lifetime, I don't even want to think what will happen when the Fed starts to shrink its balance sheet and our government starts an austerity program especially in an environment of deleveraging.

[sandrark]

You can like your fund allocation, but if you've gained $20K in the past two months, maybe it's time to rebalance your portfolio?

This is why asset allocation matters - it's a good way to sell without emotion, and to lock in any unusual gains...

[Slug]

You can like your fund allocation, but if you've gained $20K in the past two months, maybe it's time to rebalance your portfolio?

This is why asset allocation matters - it's a good way to sell without emotion, and to lock in any unusual gains...

Yup, I hit the re-balance button on my 401k 2 weeks ago.

[Gailete]

My stock portfolio is tiny compared to I'm sure most on this forum, but when I noticed that I had earned $350 on my Hersheys stock, I cashed out $300 about 2-3 months ago and invested in a different stock. Even with pulling that money out, my Hershey's shares are still up over $200. My 'portfolio' is currently up around $350 with only about $2600 total value. Good for me and not nerve wracking at all. I know they will go up and down. I invested in dividend producing stocks so that I'm at the point now of earning about one share each year for each stock I own--like I said I have a tiny portfolio. By the time I am actual age to retire (not just disability) my stocks should have doubled in shares owned even if I don't invest another penny. It is the best I can do in investing, with eeking out what dollars I can to invest each month. If I want to feel really good about it, I just add some extra zeros on the ends of the numbers to see what a 'rich' person who made the same decisions I had made might have earned, so if I had had $250,000 invested, I could have pulled out $30,000 and reinvested it after only one year or less of the money being invested. Makes me feel good!