In todays poor market conditions

[gmh1013]

Is anybody making money in this market?
I got out in Q3 2005 thinking it was going to crash and converted to all cash accounts (IRA's too) and have not bought one share since.
I would love to hear that somebody has made a buck or two with all the doom and gloom.

[inLine4]

Sadly it is pretty bad right now....can't even buy the 16713 that I want!

[Ed Rooney]

I got into Forever Stamps pretty heavily. Those have held up well. I'll be mailing letters for 42 cents when I'm 80.

[swissautopro]

Originally Posted by Ed Rooney

I got into Forever Stamps pretty heavily. Those have held up well. I'll be mailing letters for 42 cents when I'm 80.

Postage is going up again and the rumor is the USPS can't honor forever stamps. Ruh roh, Raggy!!!

To answer the OP's question ... NOPE!

[Gagebuilder]

I've made money on Apple, but that's about it.

[BarkMaster]

"Buying low" and waiting for the recovery....

[CoopJr]

Originally Posted by gmh1013

I would love to hear that somebody has made a buck or two with all the doom and gloom.

I have on my company's stock. Even though it's because of an employee purchase plan, the stock has done well over the last two years.

When the market severely dipped after the housing bubble burst, the stock lost about 50% but we have gained that back now.

[Ebruner]

It all depends on if you think the world is going to collapses or not. I personally think it wont, I have not sold ANYTHING and I am pumping US dollars into undervalued stocks as fast as I can.

-Eddie

[Lion]

I have lost a lot money in mutual funds but now in this market, slowly everything is going back up and I have regained some of my lost funds. Now I wish CD rates would start back up. I went to the bank last week and they were offering only .70% for six months!!!

[Some Pair]

Originally Posted by Lion

I have lost a lot money in mutual funds but now in this market, slowly everything is going back up and I have regained some of my lost funds. Now I wish CD rates would start back up. I went to the bank last week and they were offering only .70% for six months!!!

Yea, but those instruments are taxable. Buy what they (Banks) buy, to then give the customer a little piece, such as Govt.and Govt. Agency Bonds. (Less tax implications, some callable, and some only taxed at a State or Fed. level)
You can find them short and long term. JMO

Not educated enough currently with precious metals "G&S", but Armed with good information, I went to the Money Mkt. safe sidelines mostly when Countrywide was acquired by BOA in late Fall 2007, as the handwriting was on the wall so to speak. Then parked the rest when Lehman took a dump. Alot of people were getting out with Sell mkt.order's at the Mkt. open during that time.
Waited til March 2009 to dip my toes in the water.
Most everything of quality had made a nice move through the 2009 year no matter where it was. Flash Memory, Biotech, even Ford and Black & Decker at the time.
Heck just look at Citigroup from March '09 on thru the year if you were a swing trader. Several buy/sell ops were there, and etc. etc.
But given the anesthetic was wearing off the Mkt. by Winter's end, by Springtime and the world Economy News/ Devaluation of some Foreign Currencie's, I was with the old adage "When it becomes the month of May, take your money and stay away" school of thought.

I only held what I could count on one hand in relatively small positions. A little Biopharma Co., a Ent.Media Co, a premium Flash Memory, etc. You know, Spec

Let's all see what the end of not this current quarter that ended June 30, but next qtr. earnings and news brings for Sept.30 earnings. I'm looking for some more 2009 stability and we may have a better footing by then to step back in heavier.
Otherwise you are better served staying away now, unless you are a good swing trader. Again, it's JMO.

[sakuraba]

I'm trying to stay liquid.

While the economy is uncertain, I try to be conservative with investments.

[Lt CHEG]

My TSP (like a 401K for federal government employees) was up over 60% last year. I was able to get out of stock based funds before I lost too much in 2008 and ended up realizing about 45% actual profit after covering my initial 2008 investment losses. The TSP hasn't done much at all this year. I was making some money in international funds until things went South in Europe. I took almost all but 10% of my money out of stock based funds last month right about when the Dow was back to its 2010 high and placed that money back into bond based funds with small returns but with no chance of losses. I believe that there is going to be another bloodbath in the market and I expect the Dow to go back into the 6,000's. When the market drops again, I'll buy back in, but this market now is basically going nowhere, so I'll take the 2 to 3 percent I'm making in the bond funds right now as it's not much less than what the stock market will return if it keeps behaving like it has been over the last 4 months or so. I think that the 2010-2019 decade may end up being another lost decade like the 1970's. The FED just released a report that US companies have $1.8 Trillion in cash right now sitting on the sidelines.

[sea-dweller]

I have been investing for 24 years (since graduating from college). Many of my equity funds have appreciated quite nicely (from reinvested dividends, capital gains and share price appreciation) and I have started to sell off portions on big rally days (such as July 13th) and move the funds into short/intermediate term bonds and cash. I have pared my portfolio equity exposure from around 78%, down now to 55%. The equity funds are mainly S&P 500 index, international index, mid cap index, small cap index and some balanced funds (actively managed funds are too expensive, so most of my holdings are in index funds). I am going to hold this conservative stance until retirement (12-15 years form now). In case of a big market downturn (Dow at 7,000), I may put 10-12% back into the market.

Taking a cautious stance now.

[Zed Homme]

I've done extremely well in the last 12 months, but it's offset by losses incurred in 2008. I've made a large investment in oil futures as it's dirt cheap right now, and even as the US lags, there will be a global recovery soon.... Just my $0.02...

[ParisDakarBmw]

I've done really good playing ping pong with gold & silver. Kitco is the best for that.

[Bisquitlips]

Done extremely well with GLD, SLV, and other metal stock as well as AAPL and believe it or not C. Both stocks and Calls (2012).

Shorting Garmin. Outside of that, it's pretty frightening out there right now.

I see absolutely nothing on the horizon to get excited about. It's almost like the big boys have their heads in the sand and are ignoring the global financial conditions. Of course most of the hedge and mutual fund managers have good reason NOT to panic their investors so it's easier to just say nothing and ignore it until they can't any more. At that point they will take the money and run leaving carnage in their wake.

Any market exuberance is totally smoke IMO.

I see a huge correction or even a moderate to harsh crash coming. We will know for sure after the first of the year the direction we will be forced to go. Until then I am a trader, not an investor and am long in nothing and probably won't be for 12 to 18 months if not longer.

We have not been this way before folks!

[ParisDakarBmw]

Originally Posted by Bisquitlips

Done extremely well with GLD, SLV, and AAPL and believe it or not C. Both stocks and Calls (2012).

Shorting Garmin. Outside of that, it's pretty frightening out there right now.

I see absolutely nothing on the horizon to get excited about. It's almost like the big boys have their heads in the sand and are ignoring the global financial conditions. Of course most of the hedge and mutual fund managers have good reason NOT to panic their investors so it's easier to just say nothing and ignore it until they can't any more. At that point they will take the money and run leaving carnage in their wake.

Any exuberance is totally smoke IMO.

I see a huge correction or even a moderate to harsh crash coming. We will know for sure after the first of the year. Until then I am a trader, not an investor and am long in nothing.

Exactly! My money is for many short term flips to make up for the lack of investment trust.

I showed my dad how to play with precious metals. Watch the dollar, dow, and fuel prices. If the dollar gets too far ahead, and the dow is up, buy metals. When the market corrects sell on the dollars weakness. My dad put $37k into Kitco's pool acounts, and is sitting now with $60k a year later. Silver tends to have a whiptail reaction to gold. You can have fun with that metal.

Longterm gold......No

Ping pong Hell yeah!

[andypandy]

A word to the wise. If you have been following the price of BP shares last week and this week....you could have made a profit of 50p to 70p per share, U.S. members ad 50% to
get dollar price. There's an old English saying "where there's muck , there's brass ( money)"
How true !

[ParisDakarBmw]

Get ready for a precious metal rally. It has been correcting for the past few days. It will be back, and forth pretty good for a while, but it will have a nice uptrend. Silver is taking a hard dip, but the whiptail will be nice!

[2careless]

I got out of equities last October after recovering the loss incurred during the GFC. Bought some gold on the way and in A$ terms it was good. I think I'd wait and see if US gets dragged down by Europe or not before committing into stocks again.