Should I Sell All My Stocks?

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Have you heard of Contrarian thinking? When 4 out of 4 "professionals" tell you that you should be in the market. GET OUT NOW!!!!!
Until perhaps 2 or 3 "professional" start to tell you to get out, then I woud consider getting back in. These guys couldn't see the greatest tidal wave before the crash, and now they're still giving advice. Shame!

jake of ME 2:54PM March 05, 2009

I am and have followed all the rules and worked hard. Had over a million in the market and lost half thanks to Smith barney. I am going to sell everything tomorrow as I have lost faith in our government, They are all a bunch of criminals including wallstreet. I am disgusted with the whole thing. This is the worst I have seen it in my entire life. The market is ready to crash and tank now. The terrorist are taking over the whole thing.

jim Orvill of PA 9:41PM March 03, 2009

I guess I'm crazy to let my bank talk me into moving all my cd's
to a mutural fund. At first I made thirty thousand in no time.
Then " wham " in the late spring I begin to lose money, by
Sept I had lost one hundred and thirty thousand. I'm told by my
bank if I don't need the money let it ride, I will recover my
loss. I haven't lost all my investment, but losing that much is
not something I like to think about.
I'm stuck now with the long haul. If I had it to do over for peace of mind I'd leave my money in cd's. I'm 67 retired and
working drawing retirement and social security . Have I made
a mistake ? I don't need the mutural money I just perfer not
to watch the rest of it slowly go down to zero.

R.L. of FL 9:04AM December 19, 2008

you have got to be kidding...

cheryl of 5:15PM December 04, 2008

I was fortunate enough to be able to retire at age 51 (10 years ago) with 1.5M in investments. I've been living off profits since then. Up until this year, things have been great. My investments have been widely diversified and I weathered tne 2002-4 downturn quite well. I do have a financial advisor. He has advised me to stick it out, and since he has really been great all these years, even in the down years, making a few adjustments as necessary I do trust him. I guess I'm looking for a second opinion.
I have about $30-40k in cash I could use to live on for a while. I have no debt - house is paid for, car is paid for.
The value of my investment portfolio has decreased over 40%. At my age and with unemployment being what it is, I'm not sure I could even get a job right now. Should I be looking anyway?
Given my age, do you think I have time to wait it out?

Jill G of WA 12:49AM November 21, 2008

Terry:
If your investment is not performing in the manner that your broker told you, then file a grievance with Merrill Lynch against your broker. You will, unfortunately, have to go through arbitration, so you better have all your paperwork in place. Your broker should have had you sign a paper stating what your investment goals are and what your risk tolerance is. Hopefully, you have kept that up-to-date as your needs changed.
You can go here: http://www.finra.org/Investors/ToolsCalculators/BrokerCheck/index.htm to find out if your broker has had any problems before.

jimmy of MD 1:56PM October 28, 2008

About 1-1/2 years ago I called my broker in to discuss my 401K funds and wanted to move them into a safe media such as a CD. I only had seven or eight years before I had planned to retire. (Not anymore.) My Merrill Lynch guy really gave me the hard sell on not moving the funds into CD's. He insisted he had a better deal! He said they have what he called a "Protected Growth" funds that did the same as a CD, but gave mush better returns. He stated that these Protected Growth Funds were like a CD in that you bought in at a given ammount which is protected. (ie the name) but they paid better than CD rates, about 6 or 8%, but would not return the 11% to 14% that standard stock funds could give me. My concern was my exposure of the base investment. He assured me that even in a bad market, I could only lose the interest that had been made from the initial buy in. When I made the switch my account was at about 360K and over the year when up to 397K which included additional deposits by me and the wife. It is now at 290K!!! Obviously not what he said would happen. Is he guilty of lying regarding this investment? Would I be justified by beating the @&!#@# out of him for putting me in this situation, and shouldnt he ( a broker ) have known better. I have no confidence in Merrill Lynch, or the whole investment game right now. Got any feedback on this??? I would appreciate it!
Terry

Terry Pocock of MI 11:03AM October 28, 2008