Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Buy and Hold is Back!

Well, not yet. Buy and hold was debunked as a viable investment strategy after the 2000 peak. Technical analysts have been touting its demise and, to quote the Market Technicians Association, the dawn of a new age for technical analysis has begun. Certainly, technicals as simple as trend following worked last year while fundamentally cheap stocks got cheaper, waiting for the fundamentals to catch up - or down, in this case.

But now that everybody knows that buy and hope does not work, the contrarian deep within thinks it is time to think about its return. Advisor Perspective Magazine even acknowledged this recently and their clientele - Registered Investment Advisors - is not exactly a market timing type of crew.

An advisor friend, who also happens to be a technical analyst, told me that the Journal of Financial Planning is talking down modern portfolio theory. If anyone has proof of that please let me know.

But the point is that buy and hold may just be back soon. Of course, the dang market has to stop falling, first!

No comments: