What I THOUGHT ABOUT Buying Today

Q: As I am 70% in Stock and 30% in Cash, I am anxious to buy down my positions to get 'whole' faster. It is my 'main' tool in my toolbox. Tossing more and more cash at failing positions until I get a pop and then out. Hopefully with some extra duckets for my risk.

A: I went defensive in December, when it became pretty clear that for all
the talk, there wasn't going to be a firm financial plan on inauguration
day. I moved into munis and ETB, a buy/write market CEF, and some other
bond funds. ETB's not up since I bought, but it's not down anywhere near
the market is, either.

If you look at some charts

of some of this stuff, you see funds that
were trading within 1-3% plus or minus for three years or so, then they
all trashed by 20% in September. The bet was that there would be some
sort of reversion to the mean, and so far it's paying off.


The muni and bond funds are all up substantially.


I keep thinking I want to buy something, but when I get to the website
to actually do it, I remember that market insecurity is rising, not
dropping, and I cancel out and stay where I am.


There's a lot of other funds in the market I own, too, because of the
401K, but I'm only down about 1.5% so far this year, because of the bonds.


Sounds like you have a plan that is working for you. What kind of yield
are your getting on average with the bond funds? I can currently get 8%
Yearly, paid quarterly, and a 22% Ultimate yearly yield at sale in
Self-Storage but I have to tie up the money for 5-7 years. So I miss
the great runs where I make that in a month... and honestly I would miss
all the ACTION.