Should I sell my mutual funds or wait?

Question

Since 02/27 I lost over $2000..I invested in Fidelity mutual funds: FSDAX ,FDVLX,FDCAX,FSLVX and TSVOX
I don't know what to do..should I sell my mutual funds or wait??

Answer 1

Selling them would be a mistake. I know it is tough to sit there and watch the money evaporate, but they are all good funds. If you have some extra dinero laying around the house somewhere, wait a couple of weeks and buy a foreign stock fund too. FIGRX for example.

Or consider adding more to your existing holdings. Oddly enough most investors only like to buy stocks when stocks have gone up considerably. They do not want to have anything to do with them after they have become cheaper. But those same folks love to go to the store and buy, buy, buy when they are having a 30% off sale. We are not at 30% off yet, but plenty are 10% off.

Answer 2

Absolutely not! I know it is scary sometimes when the market is acting like this, but the market has corrections all the time and to sell a mutual fund when it is down is not a smart thing. Last year the market had a big correction in May/June 2006. All my mutual funds were down, but by the end of the year they were back up and I had make 17% interest. There is a lot going on in the market with "Carry Trade" and the yen. Give it several weeks to a month and the market will start to right itself. Don't panic, you will make it back and then some by the end of the year.

Answer 3

The answer depends on how soon you need the money for something. If you need it within a few months, I'd sell now. I think the market is going down more before it goes back up. If you don't need the money until next year or later, I'd stay invested. Declines like this are fairly common and every single time, the market has come back. Take a look at this chart of the S&P 500 since 1950: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ta?s=%5EGSPC&t=my&l=on&z=m&q=l&p=&a=&c=

There have been many scary drops along the way, but the long term trend is very clear - UP! If you sell when the prices are down, you miss out on the rise that is sure to follow. Take a look on that chart at 1987. There was a major market crash that year, but it looks like practically nothing on the long term chart.

My approach to stocks is if I have money I need within a couple years, I keep it in something like money market accounts, CDs, etc. Anything I don't need for more than a couple of years goes in stocks because that's where I get the best return. And I have trained myself not to sell in panic when drops like this happen.

Answer 4

You've only been invested for one week? Sit tight. Give mutual fund managers a couple of years before you evaluate them. One week is just noise. If you had such a short term horizon you never should have been in equities to begin with.

Answer 5

When you bought them, didn't you plan on this being a long term investment? If you didn't plan on these being a long term investment, then you made a mistake.

Did you think you could get stock market returns without stock market risk?

Answer 6

Hold them this is normal, They go up and down but over the long term you will do well but you should transfer to Vanguard they have less expense and do a better job.