Now is the Time to Buy Shares – Everyone Else is Selling

Be careful, this is no ordinary recession

This one is global. It’s everywhere and it’s hurting everyone. Whole countries are bleeding and the consumers in those countries are hemorrhaging.

• Job losses are mounting
• House prices are falling
• Stock markets are falling
• Pension funds are falling
• Savings rates are falling

It’s like watching a dead duck spiraling downward.

In this recession,

• analysts,
• economists,
• government,
• policy-makers,
• housewives,
• journalists and
• publicans

cannot agree on how this will all pan out, or when it will end. In other words – nobody knows.

So what’s going to happen?

I look at my miserable share portfolio and grieve over the loss. It’s worth about half of what it was before the bomb fell. I get all excited when it rises a few dollars by the end of trading. But I’m still losing half of my money. What’s to get excited about? It may take years or even decades, for my portfolio to return to its old value. Am I going to sit here every evening and mourn over my losses? The stock market will languish for years.

Okay, so recovery will start next year as everyone predicts but all it will do is nibble away at my losses. Who can wait that long?

Maybe this is the time to buy?

Perhaps I should be brave, sell at the present ridiculous prices and start playing the market again at the new low levels. The problem for a Sunday afternoon stock market player is that it’s hard to swallow a loss. I’m in the habit of selling only when I’m making a profit. That was a great strategy on a rising market; what’s the game on a falling market? And the experts tell us that to be a successful stock market investor you need to take a leap of faith. The time to buy shares is when the news is bad, the economy is struggling, and there are no lights at the end of the tunnel. It’s when shares are at their cheapest.

What do the successful investors do?

Successful investors have faith in the market and in themselves. They do not make the mistake of buying high and selling low. If I decide to wait for the shares to drop even lower before I buy, how will I know when the market bottoms out? I could sit here for years watching the market drop and when it gets really low, I’ll still be sitting on the sidelines waiting for it to go even lower.

Maybe this is the time to get out?

Perhaps it’s time to bite the bullet and quit. I’m sure that all financial news that is still coming in the near future is going to be negative. There will be more uncertainty than ever, and therefore more reasons than ever to not invest in the stock market.