Has the uncertainty in Washington affected your investment decisions?

[redsfandan]

I DON'T want this to be about politics. That's a sure way to get the thread locked or at least moved to that forum. That forum is for those kind of opinions.


I'm ONLY interested in whether your investment decisions have been affected and how.

I have accounts where I haven't changed a thing and accounts where I shifted things around or switched to cash until this is over. What about you guys?

[JaxRed]

No, I follow a Dividend Growth strategy. I don't worry about trying to time market, and just concentrate on the income stream.

[BuckeyeRed27]

I'm viewing it as a buying opportunity. I've been pretty fully invested anyways, but I did move a few things in Thursday.

[Unassisted]

I just moved some money from savings into the market this morning. I don't see it as a bad time to invest.

[Rojo]

I have a friend who thinks the default will happen and is shorting the market.

[19braves77]

Nope, as in 2011, our stock market depends on what happens to Europe and Asia. The government would have to shut down by 40% before I was concerned.

[Cyclone792]

Stay the course. Or more appropriately ... don't do something, just stand there. All my stuff is on auto-pilot and I'll be keeping it on auto-pilot.

The odds of a default are probably not zero, but they're still incredibly low. There's likely going to be a ton of volatility this week and perhaps early next week if things drag on that far, but once an agreement is in place there could be some fuel for a nice rally coming out the back end.

If you've got a little bit of cash hanging around looking for something to do and if there's a Really Bad Day (RBD) this week or next where we see a nice two percent or greater drop, it could be a nice day to buy on. But other than that, the best thing most people could do for themselves is stay the course.

[Redsfaithful]

Most of my investments are in Vanguard Admiral Shares. That's the retirement stuff and I don't care about anything day to day with that, because I have a 30+ year time horizon on it. Admiral Shares have the lowest fees I have ever seen in a fund, which is my highest priority.

But I also have a modest amount of money that I mess around with. I've been a little more active with that in the last month than usual I would say.

Have been buying companies coming off of bad news that I don't think is that bad. Bought Netflix at $252 when they had an earnings report that beat expectations, but not by enough so it dropped. And I bought Tesla at $173 after the YouTube video of the car fire.

Probably not the greatest strategy if we weren't in a bull market, but I could take a hit on this money and be ok so I view it like gambling.

I don't see the government defaulting. Obama has options (not attractive ones - he'd have to effectively break the law I think) to prevent it from happening without Republican cooperation.

[bucksfan2]

Most of my investments are in Vanguard Admiral Shares. That's the retirement stuff and I don't care about anything day to day with that, because I have a 30+ year time horizon on it. Admiral Shares have the lowest fees I have ever seen in a fund, which is my highest priority.

But I also have a modest amount of money that I mess around with. I've been a little more active with that in the last month than usual I would say.

Have been buying companies coming off of bad news that I don't think is that bad. Bought Netflix at $252 when they had an earnings report that beat expectations, but not by enough so it dropped. And I bought Tesla at $173 after the YouTube video of the car fire.

Probably not the greatest strategy if we weren't in a bull market, but I could take a hit on this money and be ok so I view it like gambling.

I don't see the government defaulting. Obama has options (not attractive ones - he'd have to effectively break the law I think) to prevent it from happening without Republican cooperation.

I kinda operate the same way. I have some "play" money that I invest mostly in a dividend strategy. Because of my age I like to say close to 100% invested. I have found that times like these are great times to invest. The day of the US downgrade was a great time to invest. I have raised some cash already and am debating raising some more. I just don't see anything quick happening and the markets look to be on a continual decline until some resolution happens. I won't sell any of my core positions.

[oneupper]

Sold my facebook shares yesterday.
Aside from a few equity positions, I concentrate in high yield and emerging market bonds.
They've been pretty steady lately after a couple of tough months over the summer.

[Red in Chicago]

Sold my facebook shares yesterday.
Aside from a few equity positions, I concentrate in high yield and emerging market bonds.
They've been pretty steady lately after a couple of tough months over the summer.

you timed that one pretty well, given that they were down over $3/share today...i'm still holding on to mine though...

[redsfandan]

I've bought 2 bear market etf's and am thinking about buying another. Any suggestions?

[oneupper]

I've bought 2 bear market etf's and am thinking about buying another. Any suggestions?

Well, Biotech's been superhot, so if it reverses there's some room to run.

BIS -UltraShort Nasdaq Biotech would be an option.

Personally, I prefer to go short with futures. Much cleaner.

Don't think we're looking a a bear market here, though. Just a correction at most.

[Boston Red]

Hope you all got your bets down before today's rally!

Granted, I wouldn't be surprised to see the market give the whole enchilada back tomorrow.