(03-25-2020, 02:33 PM)HURRICANE!!! Wrote: yesterday prior to market close I xferred 20% of my funds from money market (cash) to large cap (S&P500).  Wondering if I should take the plunge back into with another 40% or so.  I'm at 70% bonds/mmarket right now.

Take my opinion as just that.

There are two trains of thought that come to mind.

I bought in just a bit last week and it's doing decent, but I only have small positions right now.  The difference is I'm moving money in a regular brokerage account rather than a 401k so I can back out at any time with the click of a mouse (real time not having to wait until the end of the trading day).  The approach that I'm using is to buy-in in steps.  We are seeing another day (so far) to the up side which is what I like to see.  Depending on how the rest of the week plays out I may take another step in and increase my position(s) and/or perhaps buy some other things on a moderate down day.  I don't want to buy-in too fast with too much risk and end up with another wild swing down.  I am confident that what I have bought right now is going to do well long term so the small portion of my portfolio at risk right now is kind of a "hedge" against another major down turn.

On the other hand, if I am in a 401k, especially if your company matches I would probably be a bit more aggressive.  You are buying stocks at a deep discount right now.  If your available choices offer sectors I would look to that rather than an index fund.  There is nothing wrong with an index fund and I do invest a portion of my portfolio in them, but certain sectors tend to beat the indexes every year.  By the way, one of the index ETFs that I do tend to buy shares in also is a S&P 500 fund.

The thing is to focus on at least a year out.  Don't worry so much about the day-to-day moves or even week-to-week moves in the market.  Look more towards the 52 week number.  I happen to watch the market daily because a very small portion of my portfolio is individual stocks and I want to keep track of them.  I bought a small position (100 shares) in Micro$oft last Tuesday at around $135 or so a share (I was hoping to get in closer to $130).  It pulled back under that for a couple of days but is now up over $150.  Depending on conditions when it has a moderate down day I'll probably improve my position.  It's a company that will eventually get back to it's 52 week high of around $190 and it pays a good dividend.  It's just not going to get back up there until Q1 of next year or possibly later.

Again, this is just how I look at it and how I invest.  I am by no means a professional money manager and as I said, take my advice/opinion however you want.

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