X-Message-Number: 20434 Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2002 14:05:22 -0500 (EST) From: Charles Platt <> Subject: Stock Market Behavior John de Rivaz suggests: > So in 1990 someone could have bought approx $100k of insurance and paid for > it by savings income from $40k. Instead he could have used the $40k to have > bought stock exchange investments which even after the boom and bust would > still be worth nearer $200k. I've seen this kind of argument often. Certainly the DJIA has done well over the years--but who owns stock in all the companies which constitute the DJIA? I've never met anyone who follows this investment strategy. On the other hand I know people who have suffered by investing in the wrong mutual funds, and I know even more people who have done extremely well in stocks over a short period, but have been wiped out in the long term. I have one friend, who is extremely shrewd, but went from $500,000 to $500 during the past two years. Certainly the market as a whole tends to increase in value over the long term, but that doesn't mean your subset of it will. --CP Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=20434