The DOW is down 222 points today

for what it's worth, the DOW is up %17.7 ytd as of todays close.

Maybe they are trying to entice mugs back into the market.

Good news indeed, but still too early to get excited.

The DOW is down 275 as we speak; and it's my HO that we haven't seen close to bottom yet until we stop bleeding jobs. It's at 7500.

March 2009 ended on the positive side of the slide; for the month the DOW added 546 (+7.73%), Nasdaq added 151 (+10.7%), and the S&P added 63 (+8.6%). Our funds were up 3.25%. For YTD, the DOW is down 1167 (13.3%), Nasdaq down 48 (3%), and S&P 105 (11.6%). Our funds are down 4.1%.

Let's hope April will be "stable" to some degree.

Didn't make it, but still way closer than I expected.

Well, I jumped on June 18, sold my money market funds and purchased three funds. They're up 8.4% as of last Friday.

I figured I needed to jump in before the crowd felt comfortable getting back into the stock market, so it seems for now that my timing was pretty good. The biggest worry is that unemployment is still increasing at untenable levels, and until that settles down, anything can happen. However, balanced against the banks and some large companies beginning to show profit, some improvement in housing, and inventories dropping to new lows, we may see some improvement.

Our total funds are up 9.6% YTD.

the DOW was at 6,500 when I posted the above back in March, it is now at 9,100.

dys, What actions did you take, if any?

I moved some stocks into bonds (and back) and that's it.

I'm also still heavy in bonds based on good investment strategy, but think I'll leave it that way until the employment picture begins to improve.

Out of curiosity, does that mean bonds, or bond funds. I didn't like the way most of the funds were required to sell off at the worst possible time just to meet redemptions. Some bonds, with their relatively high interests, are absolutely great - if bought without a premium.

roger, We have all bond funds which includes all the different terms (long term, intermediate term, short term) and corporate bonds. We used to buy certificate of deposits and ladder them when we had much more of a cash flow, but that's no longer true.

Since both my wife and I are required to withdraw minimums from our retirement funds (after age 70.5), we'll probably return to purchasing CD's when our cash flow improves again.

Thanks for answering. Just gathering opinions that might be part of a decision sometime in the future. Bond funds would be the only option open to me, of course.

You may also wish to consider inflation-indexed bonds as part of your portfolio. I would recommend laddering those too!

The folks I'm reading are suggesting shorting bonds. I don't play in the options market but I'm watching my bond funds very, very carefully. If we're in a W-shaped recovery we could be nearing the top of the middle upswing. The next downturn could be deeper than March. Keep a close eye on the cyclicals, the unemployment numbers, and the next round of earnings announcements in October. My portfolio took a hard hit last fall. I don't plan on being caught by surprise again this year.

I'm not into gambling with my retirement funds, and keep it very conservative so it will not lose much nor gain much. I transferred all of our retirement investments into Vanguard after I retired, and it's performed satisfactorily for us. Most people lost on an average of 40% last year, but my wife lost only 11% and I lost 17%. I feel very security with our combination of funds now even though my funds are over-loaded in bonds. People keep talking about inflation, but that's not going to happen any time soon; not when money is scarce as it is now. That will not change any time soon, because of the increasing unemployment numbers. Demand is still dropping for most products and services, and the likelihood of increasing prices just isn't in the books.

We will continue to see an easing of prices, because the marketplace demands that to remain competitive.

The markets are in the bezurk mode right now as thousands of folks continue to lose their jobs, defaults on homes and commercial property continues to increase - putting more banks in danger of going bankrupt, and the jobs picture still doesn't look promising for any time soon. I'm sticking with my strategy for this year.

The Dow is only up .7% right now.

Although, I do have some stocks that have risen $3.81 a share, $1.81 share, etc. just today, for instance.

I'm going to take advantage of it.

at the moment the DOW is at 9617