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Freed Roger wrote:DJIA down over 6% for 2018. NASDAQ about 5%.

Tired of all this winning yet?


I haven't even looked at my retirement account lately. Don't want to, but I keep adding to it when I can.

IMADreamer wrote:

Freed Roger wrote:DJIA down over 6% for 2018. NASDAQ about 5%.

Tired of all this winning yet?


I haven't even looked at my retirement account lately. Don't want to, but I keep adding to it when I can.

Yeah, my 401k is essentially at zero growth for the year thanks to a ton of money having been contributed, otherwise it would be down at least 10-15%.

20+% growth in 2017, 0% growth in 2018.

yeah, better not to look at it too often.

Retirement age folks -most are taking their retirement plan distributions annually over projected life. These dips aren't as damaging then. If people are taking out a major chunk of retirement funds right now due to some sort of necessity, these deflated values are tough.

Swirls wrote:

IMADreamer wrote:

Freed Roger wrote:DJIA down over 6% for 2018. NASDAQ about 5%.

Tired of all this winning yet?


I haven't even looked at my retirement account lately. Don't want to, but I keep adding to it when I can.

Yeah, my 401k is essentially at zero growth for the year thanks to a ton of money having been contributed, otherwise it would be down at least 10-15%.

20+% growth in 2017, 0% growth in 2018.

Actually I just looked at it for the first time in a few weeks, nix my above numbers. I'm now down over 10% this year, and was essentially even at the end of November - December has been rough (over $10k in losses so far).

Yippee.

So it turns out markets don't like unpredictable and retaliatory tariffs, inexplicable and uneven foreign policy, and structural deficits?

Swirls wrote:

IMADreamer wrote:

Freed Roger wrote:DJIA down over 6% for 2018. NASDAQ about 5%.

Tired of all this winning yet?


I haven't even looked at my retirement account lately. Don't want to, but I keep adding to it when I can.

Yeah, my 401k is essentially at zero growth for the year thanks to a ton of money having been contributed, otherwise it would be down at least 10-15%.

20+% growth in 2017, 0% growth in 2018.

I'm in the red because I hit my max back in August, fml

Gonna have to balance my 2019 contributions better.

heyzeus wrote:So it turns out markets don't like unpredictable and retaliatory tariffs, inexplicable and uneven foreign policy, and structural deficits?

Who knew economics was so complicated?

A Ramble of thoughts, sorry:
Bothersome that the stock market plunge comes in era where it has been juiced to the max- with large deficit spending, tax cuts, deregulation.

But Fed interest rates are a factor in the drop for sure. I used to follow the WSJ coverage of the FED and interest rates, a college project, then out of boredom at work. -but forgot most anything I learned.

Some principles, IIRC: Federal debts were artificially held down to zero or negative interest, and still are suppressed. The low rates had to effect other interest rates (mortgages, prime lending rate, to a degree) and pushed more money to equity (stock) markets, where you had a hope for a return.

I remember when relatively safe CDs payed 10% interest (or more) in the 80s.. Old people, they were living large then. Risk Reward there vs the stock market, not hard to figure. This is the interplay of interest rates and stock market that I do understand.

What I don't fully grasp, and wouldn't mind some help here - is why the FED can't do some of what Trump is openly pining for, and just hold down rates. BTW, what Trump is doing is very usual, unethical for a POTUS -meddling in markets. My uneducated guess is the FED wants to control some things in an overjuiced economy (federal spending). And they also need the major investors here and abroad to buy US treasuries (debt instruments) to fund our rising deficit. Zero percent Fed is for emergency times, and can't be sustained. It's like printing more and more money, eventually it become worthless.

It's all tough to grasp. I am almost sure that Trump has no [expletive] clue what works other than to serve his whims and save his hide for the next month or so.

Observing the [expletive] Treas Sec Mnuchin is sort of interesting these days. How to read him? Seems like he sees the trouble for the overall economy (though personally he and friends probably hedged to the max). All he does is cheerleader for the stock market. Do you think some massive investment entity or uber-rich [expletive] hinges their investment decisions on Mnuchin and Trump market cheerleading?

Anyways, end cluesless rambe. Here's a link
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/busi ... rates.html

Trump couldn’t stand not having his own even greater depression.

Mnuchin calling the banks:

[youtube]https://youtu.be/7vIjBtdEQRE[/youtube]

he's also in cabo for the holidays which is funny