Those who voted for Trump...

[wdefromtx 3,159]

Just now, Bigbens42 said:

A temporary recovery that is followed by a downtrend.

I have thought that too. Been wondering if I should do some re-balancing to shift things around just in case when hit a downtrend.

[quietfan 233]

1 hour ago, ArgoEagle said:

Some people think they're poor results, some people think they're good results. I feel safe when me and my family go to bed at night and that's a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

I'm glad you & your family feel safe.  I want every person & family to feel that way.  

But from a military standpoint, I've felt safe through the last several Presidents.  If anything, Trump's impulsive behavior makes me feel less safe.

The last time I feared an actual military threat to the United States was back during the Cold War when we lived under the shadow of possible nuclear Armageddon.  Sure nukes still exit, and worldwide nuclear holocaust could again emerge as a danger in the future, but I don't see much chance of it during my remaining years on this planet.  I don't worry about domestic terror attacks any more than I worry about civilian crime or the chances of having a fatal automobile accident or being struck by lightning, none of which causes me any loss of sleep.

[homersapien 11,352]

5 hours ago, ArgoEagle said:

Well said. Also in 2016 our military was a laughing stock in the eyes of other countries. I like the way Trump has reasserted our military strength. Now everybody has seen that if you mess with the bull, you will definitely get the horns and we are no longer considered a doormat to be stepped on. I just wish he didn't feel obligated to answer every single attack made on him by overbearing democrats that have made it their #1 priority to bully Trump as long as he is in office. He needs to pick and choose whom he chooses to retort to, and just ignore the rest of the idiots out there.

Seriously?

Our military was a laughing stock last year but now it's different?  Last year, we were a "doormat" now we are a "bull"?    

You even sound like trump.  Crazy and delusional

[homersapien 11,352]

5 hours ago, ArgoEagle said:

If Hillary had won, I'm quite sure this fact would have changed in a short matter of time. Now with Trump it will continue to be true. What you said about N. Korea is true, but if we go to war with them, it won't last long.

You need to stop posting so frequently.  Or at least do a little research. You are making a fool of yourself.

If anything, Hillary was more hawkish than Trump:  

http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/07/27/hillary-the-hawk-a-history-clinton-2016-military-intervention-libya-iraq-syria/

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/01/opinion/sunday/donald-the-dove-hillary-the-hawk.html

 

[homersapien 11,352]

1 hour ago, Bigbens42 said:

A temporary recovery that is followed by a downtrend.

I was worried about another crash based on Trump acting on his anti-trade rhetoric.  But now, I don't think he has enough political power to actually do anything.  

He's pissed it all away with his foolishness. (Thank goodness!)

[quietfan 233]

2 hours ago, ArgoEagle said:

Some people think they're poor results, some people think they're good results.

I agree that terms like 'poor' or 'good' are subjective.

Personally, I consider it poor results when $88+ million worth of cruise missiles (59 missiles @ $1.5 mil each) don't put an airfield out of commission for even 24 hours.

Some may say the 'message' Trump sent was worth the cost, but I'd suggest any such 'message' is overwhelmed by the poor judgement, irrational behavior, idiotic tweets, and lack of respect for the intelligence community and normal diplomacy that Trump demonstrates on a near-daily basis.

[homersapien 11,352]

19 hours ago, wdefromtx said:

I have thought that too. Been wondering if I should do some re-balancing to shift things around just in case when hit a downtrend.

Some advice:  Never reallocate based on what you think the market will do.  Reallocate only to bring your allocation back into balance with your strategy.

[AUDub 11,131]

5 minutes ago, homersapien said:

Some advice:  Never reallocate based on what you think the market will do.  Reallocate only to bring your allocation strategy back into balance with your strategy.

Yep. I've discussed this with my financial advisor. My portfolio is plenty diverse and I'm relatively young. We're staying the course.

[Grumps 3,693]

7 minutes ago, homersapien said:

Some advice:  Never reallocate based on what you think the market will do.  Reallocate only to bring your allocation strategy back into balance with your strategy.

Great advice!

[wdefromtx 3,159]

3 hours ago, homersapien said:

Some advice:  Never reallocate based on what you think the market will do.  Reallocate only to bring your allocation strategy back into balance with your strategy.

Well I had been thinking about it since last summer, but it was one of those things where I was like "I will do that tomorrow, then tomorrow.....etc." 

Then it shot up and I have been feeling like I have been on borrowed time. So it is part of my strategy, just been greedy so to speak.

[homersapien 11,352]

15 hours ago, wdefromtx said:

Well I had been thinking about it since last summer, but it was one of those things where I was like "I will do that tomorrow, then tomorrow.....etc." 

Then it shot up and I have been feeling like I have been on borrowed time. So it is part of my strategy, just been greedy so to speak.

Greed - as well as the flip side, fear - are terrible reasons to change your strategy.  

But - particularly if you are young - there is nothing wrong with a very aggressive stock allocation as long as you are willing to ride out the dips.  But then, you want to avoid reacting to a large dip - or even crash - by reducing your stock allocation to cut further losses.  That's reacting to the market, which no one can predict.  And it leaves you with the decision of when to get back in. Better to just ride it out.  

Patience is key.

[LakeBum 187]

Same crap that has been going on for decades.  The political party in power spends most of their time fighting to defend their position against the other party that wants to be in power.  There is never any effort to find some middle ground to do something in the best interest of the country.  The next four years will be trying to make the Republicans look bad so that the Democrats can be in power again and when they get in power they will have the Republicans trying to make them look bad.   It has been a long time since congress and the executive branch worked together to try to make this country great again.   Neither party seems interested in compromise or doing something productive.

 

[quietfan 233]

10 hours ago, LakeBum said:

The next four years will be trying to make the Republicans look bad so that the Democrats can be in power again and when they get in power they will have the Republicans trying to make them look bad.  

But in the case of the Trump Administration:  It's very hard to win the game when you keep rewarding the other team with unforced errors.

[AU64 10,122]

On 5/17/2017 at 10:32 AM, homersapien said:

Greed - as well as the flip side, fear - are terrible reasons to change your strategy.  

But - particularly if you are young - there is nothing wrong with a very aggressive stock allocation as long as you are willing to ride out the dips.  But then, you want to avoid reacting to a large dip - or even crash - by reducing your stock allocation to cut further losses.  That's reacting to the market, which no one can predict.  And it leaves you with the decision of when to get back in. Better to just ride it out.  

Patience is key.

Yep..too many people seem to operate on the "buy high, sell low" principle it seems...gotta consider a long term approach at any age...even after retirement.

[homersapien 11,352]

4 hours ago, AU64 said:

Yep..too many people seem to operate on the "buy high, sell low" principle it seems...gotta consider a long term approach at any age...even after retirement.

I remember after the "technology crash" a friend told me "he'd finally had enough and was getting out".

I was thinking to myself, when are you going to decide to "get back in"?  By definition, it would be at some point after the market has recovered.  In other words, by definition, he was destined to lose money when he finally let his fear overcome his greed.

Selling to avoid further (paper) losses is really just actualizing your paper losses. 

Of course, this assumes we are talking about the broad market and not a particular stock, which can become worthless with no chance of rebound. But then, I don't recommend investing in individual stocks in the first place.

Have to admit though, after watching my portfolio decline about 40% in the crash of 2008, I toyed with violating my rule.  In hindsight, I sure am glad I did nothing.

Not sure how this thread got sidetracked into investment strategy, but maybe the Trump voters will benefit from it.  

 

[AU64 10,122]

5 minutes ago, homersapien said:

I remember after the "technology crash" a friend told me "he'd finally had enough and was getting out".

I was thinking to myself, when are you going to decide to "get back in"?  By definition, it would be at some point after the market has recovered.  In other words, by definition, he was destined to lose money when he finally let his fear overcome his greed.

Selling to avoid further (paper) losses is really just actuallizing your paper losses. 

Of course, this assumes we are talking about the broad market and not a particular stock, which can become worthless with no chance of rebound. But then, I don't recommend investing in individual stocks in the first place.

Have to admit though, after watching my portfolio decline about 40% in the crash of 2008, I toyed with violating my rule.  In hindsight, I sure am glad I did nothing.

Not sure how this thread got sidetracked into investment strategy, but maybe the Trump voters will benefit from it.  

 

I retired in 1999..and went through 2...or maybe it has been 3 major declines....and had I pulled my money out at the bottom...I would be broke by now for certain.  JMO but my rule is to keep at least 2 years of "cash" or the like available ....and basically ride out the dips.  I also make good use of "stop losses" on my funds...all of which are ETFs of one sort or another.  I periodically re-set them if the fund makes enough gain that I want to protect.  I'm not an analyst but I do track trends and tend to see when a fund is nearing it's highest level...assuming I bought it at a lower level and have made my target. 

A friend told me to treat my investments like a train ride...".know where you want to go....when you get there, get off...and don't worry what happens to the train once you get off it."   and in particular I don't second guess about selling too early.....just look elsewhere for something that has a good trend. and nothing wrong with having cash. .....and I've found a handful of ETFs that have a nice pattern to them....so I've bought and sold some of them several times over the past 10 years...I was heavy in cash on election day....and made out very nice since then....

[RunInRed 16,360]

Add this to the secret ISIS plan and best healthcare ...

 

[AU64 10,122]

Well...you gotta have ambitious goals...

every year one or two Auburn HCs declare that his intent this year is to win a championship ...and we cheer loudly over that prospect...and supporters spend hours figuring out how it could actually happen..and finding excuses when it doesn't.     Based on my observations....politics at all levels is about the same and people expect to hear ambitious goals.....Bernie giving free college educations, Obama with free health care....and Hillary....well, that was her problem...she had no ambitious goal except to get elected...and that did not inspire many people.

As for the budget...unfortunately, no matter what DJT wants to do, there 535 members of congress who for years have not put much stock or emphasis in balancing the budget.....they just wan their pork...and that's not changed.

but you still need ambitious goals....

[TexasTiger 12,800]

1 hour ago, RunInRed said:

Add this to the secret ISIS plan and best healthcare ...

 

And working class folks lives won't be helped at all.

[AuburnNTexas 7,127]

getting back to the original topic. While I did not vote for Trump or Hillary I will weigh in.  It is way to early to say how Trump is doing.  The Supreme court nomination is a big plus for him. There are multiple things on his plate that will eventually determine if he has done well or not.

The first is the Russian influence in the election. I personally believe the Russians did try to hurt Hillary but not to get Trump elected. I think they believed as did most people that Hillary was a foregone conclusion and they wanted to weaken her as that would weaken the Presidency. For the sake of this country I hope I am right and there was no collusion at the highest levels. Hopefully Mueller will prove this one way or the other.

The second is repeal and replacement of Obamacare - so far they haven't been able to do it but many people forget it took a while to get Obamacare passed and that was with a majority Democratic House and a super majority Democratic Senate to prevent filibuster. If he is successful then we would have to judge him in what they produced just like we did with Obamacare.

Third is re-energize the American workforce more higher paying jobs and the return of manufacturing to this country. This along with technology, robotics, etc that has changed the face of the workforce worldwide.He has signed some trade deals during this trip but at this time that is more symbolic than fact we have to wait and see how many jobs are created and what type of jobs.

Fourth rebuilding the US military without bankrupting the country. (that is a tough task for any President) It is not just about more spending it is about spending the money in a wiser manner.

Fifth he has promised to get other countries to share more of the load both militarily, economically and politically in addressing problem areas in the world like Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Somalia, etc. Personally I don't think any President can pull that off but if we see major improvements in these areas over next 4 years he would deserve some of the credit. Personally I expect about the same as what we have seen under Obama and Bush, the other countries have their own agenda.

There are other area to judge the effectiveness of a President but all of these things take time. The end of his third the beginning of his fourth year is when you can start making an honest assessment unless some event happens that has a dramatic impact either positively or negatively.

 

[alexava 6,973]

Acting like an adult most of the time would be beneficial to him. He isn't capable.

[homersapien 11,352]

48 minutes ago, alexava said:

Acting like an adult most of the time would be beneficial to him. He isn't capable.

Yeah.  It's kind of hard to expect much from someone who can't even pull that off.

 

[Grumps 3,693]

1 hour ago, alexava said:

Acting like an adult most of the time would be beneficial to him. He isn't capable.

I still wonder if he is incapable or if he doesn't care if he acts like an adult. Either way, it's pretty pathetic!

[RunInRed 16,360]

Of course not, because Mexico is going to pay for it 

 

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

2 hours ago, alexava said:

Acting like an adult most of the time would be beneficial to him. He isn't capable.

Guess you haven't been watching the news lately. Trump is getting positive reviews from his current overseas trip and meetings with leaders of other countries. He is demonstrating that the U.S. is a leader again and not an apologist as Obama was. I wish we had more adults like POTUS Trump.