The Pain of Being Out of a Hot Market

Filed in archive Investing on May 22, 2007

Back on April 23, I jumped out of the market, at least in terms of my actively-traded portfolio that I like to mess with. I'd made over 10 percent this year, and decided to wait until the market cooled down a bit to jump back in. I think this was a smart decision, and still do.

Nevertheless, since then I've watched the S&P 500 go up about 3%, and the Dow almost 5%. And it's tough. It's tough to make a decision on how you want to play the market and then stay with it.

For me, it was easy to play the market when I saw my decision to buy during the February dip be just the right call. But, not wanting to get greedy, I jumped out.

And it's been painful. Painful to see that I was wrong in terms of what might happen next. And then even more painful to continue staying out of the market as it continues to rise.

But I'm determined to stick to my strategy, which is basically as simple as "buy low, sell high."

I feel like those judges on The Gong Show who desperately wanted to gong a contestant but were being held back by the other judges. I desperately want to buy something, and it may not be long before I need someone to hold me back.

It's easy to talk about being a disciplined investor. It's easy to read Warren Buffett's rules of investing and decide you'll do it just like him. The hard part is sticking with it when you feel like everyone else is making a killing and you're missing the boat.

I gotta go buy something.

Somebody stop me!