GA Firing Line

What do you do

  • Hover

    Votes: 3 12.5%
  • Wipe and sit

    Votes: 10 41.7%
  • Birdnest

    Votes: 5 20.8%
  • eww, i'm to uppidy to use a public tiolet

    Votes: 6 25.0%

  • Total voters
    24

rOmiLaYu

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And for that matter....what "is" it, exactly?

I confess to being functionally learning-disabled when it comes to the topic and I have at times tried to understand it a little better but everytime I start digging, I find myself lost in a sea of terms that I don't understand, verbs that don't make sense, and laundry lists of acronyms and jingoistic buzzwords that make my head spin. I get that it's a vague indicator of the health of the economy, or something like that......but what exactly is it and why does it make people go so crazy? I put in twice what my company matches in my X0X(x) plan and that's about the extent of my particpation, interest, and mastery.

Laymen's term, people. Laymen's terms.
 

karlvv

The LEGEND
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Well, it's my retirement. When the market drops, my 401K (well, "my" 401K) goes down with it.

I feel like I know about as much as you do about Wall St. But somewhere in there I think it has a fairly direct effect on what we pay for things. That's a gut feeling, darn sure not a fact.

It's gonna suck for a while. If I had money in 401k I would cash out. That's just me. I cashed out when the stock market was near 18000. I got skeered. Paying the taxes is better than losing the whole damn thing IMO.
 
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Hayata

Blam-blam-blam-blam-blam-blam-blam-blam-PING!
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The way I understand it basically ALL money is routed in/through the stock market in some way. The money you deposit in your bank isn't in your bank. It's in the stock market trying to make the bank more money. Maybe not a good analogy because your bank accounts are guaranteed up to $100,000 by the FDIC.

But if you have a company pension, it goes through the stock market. Your mortgage is linked.

Read Tom Clancy's "Debt of Honor" for a more detailed explanation.
 

rOmiLaYu

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The way I understand it basically ALL money is routed in/through the stock market in some way. The money you deposit in your bank isn't in your bank. It's in the stock market trying to make the bank more money. Maybe not a good analogy because your bank accounts are guaranteed up to $100,000 by the FDIC.

But if you have a company pension, it goes through the stock market. Your mortgage is linked.

Read Tom Clancy's "Debt of Honor" for a more detailed explanation.
Really? That's a majorly frightening shell game.
 
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Laufen

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It's gonna suck for a while. If I had money in 401k I would cash out. That's just me. I cashed out when the stock market was near 18000. I got skeered. Paying the taxes is better than losing the whole damn thing IMO.
I hope you're really, really near retirement. If not, you just fucked yourself. If you retire in 5, 10, 15 years, what happened today or a year from now doesn't really matter, except that you will be purchasing tons of stocks at a discounted rate before it's time to retire. You haven't "lost" anything if you don't sell, your stocks value is simply temporarily less than it was a month ago.
 

Laufen

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Yup, my 401k is getting raped right now. Lost $3500 since Friday.....:faint::frusty:
Wrong, you haven't lost a nickle..not one, your 401k is the same as it ever was if you aren't cashing it out. Right now your portfolio is best measured in shares, not dollars. Dollars don't matter until you start drawing from it. Don't get caught up in the "i just lost $xxxx in my 401k nonsense.

You're just buying cheaper shares of stock, and that's a great thing. Everyone, junk stock and bluechips are taking a beating. That's a great time to buy..all the way down.
 
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Laufen

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I just invested a small sum of money last Thursday, and I'm up over 31% on that investment after today's move. All it takes is a very small amount of time, some luck, and a little initiative and you can hedge against big dips in the market. When big swings happen, you can make money all the way down and all the way up. It's a lot more fun than a steady bull market imo.
 

rOmiLaYu

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When big swings happen, you can make money all the way down and all the way up. It's a lot more fun than a steady bull market imo.
What does that mean? I hear it all the time, "making money in a down market." How? You sell it and then buy it back after it falls? If that's the case, though, aren't you precipitating the fall yourself? And doesn't that make the whole thing artificial?