Stocks have gone almost straight up for about a year now and it has to be making more than a couple of people nervous. If you were lucky or smart enough to have bought into the market most anytime in the last 12 months, you probably have a good gain. Anybody with new cash to invest though, might be wondering how long this may keep up?
The current price of gold is also at a very high point and that might lead you to question whether or not it is too late for that sort of investment. With interest rates so low, there simply aren’t many choices for any investor that is looking for a reasonable return without too much risk. Gold is viewed by many as a hedge against inflation and hard times and we certainly have that right now. It does seem though, that gold cannot keep up its torrid pace higher and higher.
Anyone who has invested cash in stock shares most likely knows the awful feeling when everything starts to go south and on a regular basis turns out to be a loser. When you put new cash in, you always must be prepared for the chance that you will lose money. With so many optimistic months in a row behind us and a lot political uncertainty at every turn, the market may be set to go back down. Jobs are still very hard to get, house prices have not begun to rebound, and the United States is in so much debt it is astounding. Those aren’t positive things for the stock market and our economy.
Anything you will be able to learn from studying “stocks for dummies” type books will tell you how to technically do it but not how to decide what to do and when to do it. Picking successful stocks, knowing when to put money in, and when to take money out is something that may be more instinct than something that can be taught. Choosing good stocks is difficult enough in normal situations but it might be near impossible when the whole market goes down. It seems that some hard times might be ahead in 2010 and investing with caution is the prudent thing to do.
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