Current Markets - Buy or Wait?
Current Markets - Buy or Wait?
Author
Discussion

bitchstewie

Original Poster:

67,724 posts

240 months

Wednesday 10th October 2018
quotequote all
I have £5.5K left in my ISA allowance and plenty of additional spare cash.

Crystal ball question but opinions valued - use the allowance now or hold off?

Greater bargains to be had?

Derek Chevalier

4,667 posts

203 months

Wednesday 10th October 2018
quotequote all
bhstewie said:
opinions valued
Why?

bitchstewie

Original Poster:

67,724 posts

240 months

Wednesday 10th October 2018
quotequote all
Because some people have been doing this years so what may seem an opportunity to one person may simply be "that's normal don't get carried away" to some.

I find hearing other perspectives helps.

bad company

21,919 posts

296 months

Wednesday 10th October 2018
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OK, I’ll bite. Markets have been on a bit of a downward spiral the end of which may or may not be soon.

I’d definitely put some money into the market now and feed some more in over a period.

I’ll be investing new money into shares tomorrow but I’ve been wrong plenty of times before.

Derek Chevalier

4,667 posts

203 months

Wednesday 10th October 2018
quotequote all
bhstewie said:
Because some people have been doing this years so what may seem an opportunity to one person may simply be "that's normal don't get carried away" to some.

I find hearing other perspectives helps.
Surely that implies an element of market timing? I'm not sure why someone would need to check their portfolio/what the markets are doing more frequently than annually or semi-annually. What is the upside?

Croutons

13,363 posts

196 months

Wednesday 10th October 2018
quotequote all
Derek Chevalier said:
Surely that implies an element of market timing? I'm not sure why someone would need to check their portfolio/what the markets are doing more frequently than annually or semi-annually. What is the upside?
Get off your high horse.

No-one wants to buy a financial product and see the value fall straight away, and 5.5k is a lot of money to most people, PH directors like you aside. Thus it’s wholly reasonable to ask.

Unfortunately op with no crystal ball, no one knows, and daily blips can hurt anyone. I put a heap in a SIPP last week which is down- I check a lot, the “upside” for our equine friend being a feeling of either comfort I’ve had a gain, or inspiring me to make more dough to put in.

trowelhead

1,867 posts

151 months

Wednesday 10th October 2018
quotequote all
bhstewie said:
I have £5.5K left in my ISA allowance and plenty of additional spare cash.

Crystal ball question but opinions valued - use the allowance now or hold off?

Greater bargains to be had?
Here's one perspective:
http://wallstreetplayboys.com/sp-500-surpasses-170...

MWM3

1,876 posts

152 months

Wednesday 10th October 2018
quotequote all
I've put £4k in this evening with the intention of buying American stock. Invested half of it in 3 stocks, half an hour later the market closed and each was a further 2%- great.

However, I do believe this is a blip and the market will recover just like it did at the begining of the year. Might not be this week but think we will be back up by end of month, so saw this as a good oppertunity to buy.

Interestingly, I have a feeling this shock may delay any rate rise for a little while.

But as others have said none of us have a crystal ball and these are just my amateur musings

Edited by MWM3 on Wednesday 10th October 23:29

ellroy

7,835 posts

255 months

Wednesday 10th October 2018
quotequote all
The length of time in the market is much more relevant than the timing of it. Every single piece of research shows this.

If it’s right for you invest it and get on with life.

GT03ROB

14,024 posts

251 months

Thursday 11th October 2018
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MWM3 said:
However, I do believe this is a blip and the market will recover just like it did at the begining of the year. Might not be this week but think we will be back up by end of month, so saw this as a good oppertunity to buy.
US markets especially are overdue a correction, rather than a blip. It's been one way traffic for a long time. The question is, is this blip the start of that correction. Nobody really knows, but the correction which will happen gets closer & the longer we go without one the larger it will be. Just my thoughts.

The broader problem is that generally where US markets go others tend to follow.

xeny

5,482 posts

108 months

Thursday 11th October 2018
quotequote all
ellroy said:
The length of time in the market is much more relevant than the timing of it. Every single piece of research shows this.

.
Unfortunately investors have much more control of the latter than the former.

BS - the rule of thumb I've seen is to consider where the market is vs the 200 day moving average. You miss out on the initial pick up, but tend to miss the worst of the drops.

anonymous-user

84 months

Thursday 11th October 2018
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Historically, equity markets go up a lot more than they go down, thus when they go down a bit it's historically usually an opportunity to get a better entry.

They've been hit pretty hard these past few days so this may be a better time to get in than 'usual'.

Or they could go down more. Or up. Or stay the same biggrin


gazza5

902 posts

135 months

Thursday 11th October 2018
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I have carried on with my monthly £150 I put into 6 different funds. I do this every month and will not change this even if the FTSE was 4000 tomorrow.

I do have a little of cash on the sideline to top up funds if we did see a correction.

Overall yes its annoying, my profit on my funds and shares have gone down from £2,200 to £1,400. But the way I see it I am in it for the long haul, if the downward pressure continues - I have my £150 a month buying me cheaper funds.

As you can tell from my numbers I am no big player - I only started saving properly 3 years ago - dabbled with aim and that didn't work out so stay clear now.

With your money I would probably wait a few more days - my apple shares are due to loose another 1% today according to google when US markets open.

bad company

21,919 posts

296 months

Thursday 11th October 2018
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FTSE down another 115 points this morning, anybody brave enough to call the bottom?

I just topped up some of mine but I’d say it’s a good time to drip money into the market.

SS2.

14,712 posts

268 months

Thursday 11th October 2018
quotequote all
It's depressing watching much of the recent gains getting wiped out over the past few days but, as above, got to keep telling myself it's time in the game not timing that's important.

Croutons

13,363 posts

196 months

Thursday 11th October 2018
quotequote all
To be fair, there's been a fking huge hurricane in the US which is far worse than predicted, so no-one was prepared, and the scale of problems is not yet known. That took US markets lower on its own.

That sort of event, on top of wky "have they ever got any prediction right, ever?" IMF reports saying there are underlying issues, doesn't help.

wilwak

759 posts

200 months

Thursday 11th October 2018
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I agree that stock market investing is for the longer term and I try not to look at my holdings too often.

For many years I used to invest via regain monthly standing order but now I save up cash and buy on dips,

The dips may not be at the bottom but buying on a dip is better than buying on a peak.

Gut feel is that it’s improved my performance.

AAIF which is a good solid Asian income fund generating 4.75% dividend was over 220p a share a few months back. I jumped in and bought earlier this week at 196p on a dip! Today it’s 186p but still happy with my 196p as a long term hold. A lot better than buying at 220p!

It’s impossible to get it exactly right...!

red_slr

20,751 posts

219 months

Thursday 11th October 2018
quotequote all
I invest each month regardless of the markets. However I keep my ISA for when I feel like investing / when I have spare money.

I have only put £2k in my ISA this year so far and £0 for the wifey.
Yes its trying to time the market but its not often that a country leaves the EU....

I think having rules you stick too is a good thing, but when something exceptional happens you have to be able to take a balanced view and make a decision that might go against the normal rules.

I will probably look closely at the markets in Jan / Feb on the run up to the end of the 18/19 FY. My plan would be to try and use my ISA in March. Then again use my new ISA in April if the markets still look flat. After that I will probably go back to my normal investing plan which is once every 2-3 months.

gazza5

902 posts

135 months

Thursday 11th October 2018
quotequote all
wilwak said:
I agree that stock market investing is for the longer term and I try not to look at my holdings too often.

For many years I used to invest via regain monthly standing order but now I save up cash and buy on dips,

The dips may not be at the bottom but buying on a dip is better than buying on a peak.

Gut feel is that it’s improved my performance.

AAIF which is a good solid Asian income fund generating 4.75% dividend was over 220p a share a few months back. I jumped in and bought earlier this week at 196p on a dip! Today it’s 186p but still happy with my 196p as a long term hold. A lot better than buying at 220p!

It’s impossible to get it exactly right...!
I do agree with you and would like to buy on dips etc - but also worried I would end up spending the money saved - so by doing it monthly My pay goes in - 5 days later my money goes out into the funds - dips always happen - had fun with IAG over the past year or so, but generally try and stay out of individual stocks, focus on the funds. Although all my funds are accumulation - don't need the income yet.

bmwmike

8,717 posts

138 months

Thursday 11th October 2018
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I check all my balances at least 3 times a week. Guess I am doing it wrong?

Agree with most comments here it's a long term thing and time in the funds/market is better than in and out and in again not least because costs.