I'm looking more at stocks in companies that regularly give a dividend, although they went down in value along with the rest of the market. I'm wondering whether this is the time to buy stock in oil companies.

I see bad times coming so I moved all my portfolios into a money market until I see a bluebird on the horizon, so to speak.

Yayagal, I did that with my personal investments (as opposed to my DH's and joint holdings) just before the turn of this century. There was so much hype and fear about Y2K that I thought there might be a selloff. So before that happened I sold high--and after the selloff I bought them back low. It was the only time I've ever done anything like that, and it was a profitable move. But my financial times have changed, and I don't dare touch anything now.

Stock prices are cyclical, they go up and down, but over the long-term (as in our lifetimes) the net movement has been up.

Professional money managers can't foresee macro market movements and so they don't try. Nor should individual investors try.

Most advocate a risk/reward approach that reduces risk as the investor ages. A common strategy to reduce risk is to be sure your portfolio is diversified between debt and equity, foreign and domestic, large and small companies. Why? Because each of these has movements at different times, some go in opposite directions in response to another. As the years increase, most suggest increasing debt and decreasing equities but maintaining money in both.

If there's a company you like, buy that stock. Otherwise, it's easiest to buy funds of different types and let the managers worry about your portfolio. In buying funds, give preference to low-cost ones like those offered by Vanguard. Their performance is on par with other managers and their fees are significantly lower. Long term, that can make a big difference.

Morningstar rates fund performance. Getting the Morningstar rating for individual funds is free. 5 stars is tops and represents the top 10% compared to similar peers. 4 stars means the next 22 percent strata, so top third.

Alisande, I did the same as you in 2008 and kept my $ safe until it was ready to move back in. This has been my strategy for 40 years. My husband just follows what I do as I'm more knowledgeable in this area.

You're only fooling yourself if you think you know more and can do better than the professionals.

Vanguard is one of the best teams to manage your diversified investment. I own one stock, Centene. Bought it back in 2012 for around $20 and look at it once a year. I think it's around $60 today.

I'm watching Barrick gold(ABX), they used to pay a nice dividend. Home Depot(HD), I shop there a LOT! I owned APPL(Apple) when they had a 7 for 1 split, then sold it.

After the layoffs WMT will be a good buy, as the ER will show bigger profits.

I watch XOM, but don't see it as a good buy right now. I like Sunoco(SUN).

An equity REIT is in my opinion the direction to go right now.

Canada has quite few resource and mining stocks, and one that I've had for a while has gone down a lot ... but not sure when/if major recovery.

Same with a pipeline ... but it's grown a lot, and provided good ongoing income in the past, so no complaint.

I don't like paying the 1.5% management fee in your area (2.5 per cent up here) on many mutual funds, when about 85% of managers don't have better track records than the section of the market in which they operate that particular fund.

That costs a lot, figured over 40 years: I'd rather keep at least part of those funds in my own pocket or other stocks.

(If I told you ... you'd probably figure that it was a lot of bull).

ole joyfuelled

Few US funds charge over 1% in annual fees. For index funds and fund sponsors like Vanguard, fees are often less than .3% (ie, less than one-third of one percent).

A negative for Canadian investors in US stocks is that dividends are subject to US income tax withholding at a 15% rate.

I'm pleased to hear that the fees charged by U.S. mutual funds are that low - were they reduced recently?

We've complained about the high fees up here, but to little effect, thus far, but some say that ours may be reduced soon.

We get a reduction in Canadian tax regarding U.S. taxes levied on payouts to Canadians from U.S. stocks, as there's a tax treaty. I haven't checked lately, but it used to be about $2.00 Cdn. credit for $3.00 charged by I.R.S.

No U.S. taxes on my Mexican and German stocks, but a small (admin.?) fee on the Mexican.

o j

I wouldn't say it's been recent. If you look at the mutual fund business 30 years ago, most funds were one-off operations, most focused in specific investment types, but always trying to produce better returns than competing funds. Investors came to realize (as you mention) that many rock-star managers produced returns no better than, and often worse than, broad indexes that could be used for comparisons.

That was the start of index funds - no reason to try to beat the index, just buy the index. Index funds require minuscule management effort - incoming and outgoing shareholder money needs administration, fund holdings need to be rebalanced when the members of an index are changed, but otherwise, not much so that fees can be lower. At the same time, Vanguard decided to take a different course. They were formed as an investor-owned operation (like a mutual insurance company) so that there was no need for a profit element, fees only need to cover costs. Vanguard's performance among funds has been as good or better than many, and the low cost profile puts pressure on other funds to follow suit or risk becoming unattractive to potential investors.

Vanguard started in 1975 but its popularity has been reached over the last 15-20 years.

My view (opinion).

Don't buy oil stocks just yet. Those have not completely bottomed. Wait until after the new Iranian oil hits the market. Sanctions were removed in the past few days. I have Exxon Mobil and will be holding it riding through this rough patch that may last longer than a year. I have a couple of utilities that I like, and 2 other of my favorites are Kimberly - Clark (KMB) and UnitedHealth Care (UNH). In the financial sector, look at Wells Fargo (WFC).

Disclaimer: These views are opinions only and not backed by anything. In my opinion, logic has left the market; It has become emotional and behaves accordingly. Buyer beware.

" In my opinion, logic has left the market; It has become emotional and behaves accordingly. "

This is always the case, jemdandy. Market movements are always emotional.

With that in mind, it's annoying to me that reporters/observers try to explain market movements with asinine observations that can never be other than guesses. Blindfolded throws at a dart board, which can be as good a way to pick investments as to explain market trends.

I suggested to a few U.S. folks, here, a few years ago, that it might be a good idea to buy some Canadian money, as it was under 75 cents, so they'd get better than $130. for US$100., and we had some good stocks up here, paying worthwhile dividends. It was probable that the Canadian Dollar would rise in value, later, and they could repatriate their money, should they so choose.

Hope that any who might have done that had carried out that repatriation, a couple of years ago, when our dollars were at par (actually, it would have cost you a little over a US Dollar to have bought one of ours, for a short spell, a couple of years ago).

Cause ... now our economy is largely in the tank, so heavily dependent on resources as it is, for the global, especially Chinese, cutbacks have caused a substantial reduction in demand for them and one US Dollar will buy much more than $130.00 Canadian, as our Dollar can be bought for U S 69 cents.

Here's lookin' atcha.

ole joyful ... who shoulda bought some U.S. Dollars when he'd have got one of yours for one of his, or close to it ... one lives ... one learns (sometimes)

For those of you who are interested in oil company stocks, here's a fairly good run down on these:

Oil Companies that will Thrive on Rebound