I sold all my positions by yesterday morning except for everything in my retirement funds. Why, after I talked about holding for the long term? To be honest, my nerves couldn't handle seeing the markets in such wide swings, potentially depleting my most liquid assets that I'll need to pay rent, insurance, and bills. Also, the news from the past few days has been all negative. Yes, lower interest rates may help ease the economy's pain, but do you really think all the suffering of individuals and companies are over? Maybe it's still only the beginning. Regular people are reducing their spending...I plan on giving handmade presents this Christmas. Who knows when the blood will stop spilling? I think that I'll take this time in the next few days to envision my ideal portfolio and delve into the specific purchases I would want to make in this or an even worse environment down by 20-50%.
By the way, I don't count retirement investments such as 401(k), 401(b), IRA, or Roth funds with long horizons as part of my liquid funds. In fact, in my mind, they're untouchable until age 59 1/2. So, I could lose greatly on these assets, take great risks, and be ok. Therefore, I still definitely have stocks there.
I think I'll write an entry on taxes and fees associated with stock selling and buying by the end of this week. Would you find this useful?
