As Worries Ebb, Small Investors Propel the Markets

While the rising market may lift the nation’s collective spirits, it will not necessarily restore everyone’s portfolios. In good times and bad, many individual investors tend to buy and sell at precisely the wrong moments. They dump stocks after the market falls and buy stocks after the market rises, the opposite of what investors aim to do.

Some market experts worry that might be happening this time, too. People who got out as stocks plummeted in 2008 and early 2009 have already missed a remarkable rally. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index has soared 120 percent since March 2009, passing the 1,500 milestone. This year alone, the main indexes are up 5 percent. Now, the investing public seems more afraid of missing out than of misreading Wall Street again.

Investing really plays against every instinct.  You need to buy when things don’t look so great, and sell when everyone else thinks something looks awesome.

As Warren Buffett says, “Be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy.”

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    Buy buy buy
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