30 years ago I vividly remember thinking that Sears and to a lesser degree Penneys, had no future. Sears was where old and poor people shopped for dull products... lawn mowers and vacuums, underwear. OTOH, most of the exciting stores from that era are gone or in decline now too.
I thought the dot com era was pure insanity. I almost totally dodged the collapse in 2000. Stock boards were full of greedy newbies who read the 1990s headlines and loaded up on the very worst junk. Lots of bankruptcies followed. People really did mortgage their homes to buy tech stocks, and even pennies. Yes, experienced investors who shunned tech, did just fine.
The Great Recession was harder to dodge as just about everything collapsed. I have a lot of my funds in muni bonds which plummeted and then rebounded within months. I added some stocks in late 2008 mainly because the 3-4% they paid was more than banks were paying. And banks were looking mighty shaky for a few years. But I know plenty of sensible investors who lost faith in stocks and sold EVERYTHING at the very bottom.
As high as stocks are now, I don't discern anything like the investor insanity of 1999 or the real estate speculation of 2007. Dow stocks are red hot; the DIA (diamonds) Dow ETF is in big demand. Money is mostly flowing into quality stocks. The big worry is Washington. THERE I see insanity.
Buy/hold has always been the sensible way to invest. Shorting has almost always been a losers game. I'm dealing with Sears by watching it, not shorting it.
______________________________________________________________
Because the Good Life is Just a Pump or Two Away
AI
