Investment Omens

DonDiego thanks snidely333 for the warning.

Significant numbers of urban youth are well over 100 miles from Tomato Ranch Ridge. They'd have easier pickin's in the villages along the way. And the numbers of urban youth would likely decline as they encountered the defenses of the less-easy pickings on the way to poor old DonDiego; and in any case the density of urban youths would decrease as the square of the distance from their original 'hoods.

On the other hand a railroad line is 'bout a quarter-mile from the house. DonDiego'd already figured he'd be a'stealin' coal from any slow moving freight cars when things got real bad. He hadn't thought of urban youth hopping onto the trains to get to DonDiego's 'maters. At least there's a clear view of the tracks from up heh'.

Do freight trains still run on coal?

Will the market continue rising? Yes
Will there be a correction along the way? Yes.
Roller coasters can be very scary, but the only people who get hurt are those who try to get off mid-ride.

Umm, . . . yes, . . . but not many.
"There is only one place left on earth where steam locomotives are still widely in use: the Chinese industrial hinterland."
Ref: citylab.com

The trains operating near Tomato Ranch Ridge employ diesel-locomotives to transport coal; over the last few years the frequency of the trains has decreased noticeably as the US Government is trying to abolish coal-fired electric power-plants.

Up until retirement in 1998 DonDiego rode the ups-and-downs pretty much as billryan suggests.

However, shortly after retiring DonDiego opined things were a mite dicey and reduced his common stock holdings pretty severely by early 2001. He lost a bit by selling too early, but he saved himself some grief.

He got back in with about all he had to invest over the years 2002 through 2005.

In 2006 he got scared by folks like Peter Schiff [note i] and others who warned of among other things banking problems and a housing collapse. DonDiego again sold almost all his stocks beginning in the Fall of 2006 through mid-2007. Again a little early, . . . but, Man-O-Man, better too early than too late.
[DonDiego recommends one read the book The Big Short [note ii]or see the movie [note ii] to understand why the markets fell rather dramatically.]

[By the way, the stock market used to be discussed here on LVA a lot more than it is now. DonDiego communicated the investment moves above, avoiding the tech-crash and the finance/housing-crash, within this very Forum. Sorta like today.]

DonDiego got back into stocks starting in 2010, pr'bly a bit early. Today DonDiego is invested in stocks about as much as he ever wants to be. In fact, he had a significant rise in his largest stock-holding this past week [30Jan-3Feb]; he made more this week than he ever made in a year's wages.

But DonDiego is starting to get nervous again. He opines the markets are pretty fully priced, as the charts above suggest, . . . and he recognizes the world economy is in uncharted waters what with historically low interest rates - even negative interest rates and a 0% 30-year sovereign bond under consideration.
Nothing good can come of this.

DonDiego doesn't have his finger on the trigger, . . . but it is on the trigger-guard.

Note i. Peter Schiff Was Right

Note ii. The Big Short

Note iii. The Big Short - Movie

Peter Schiff has been predicting an imminent economic collapse for the last 30 years. Whenever we have a recession he goes on an "I told you so" tour across the mediasphere.

I don't pretend to know when the next correction will hit. But I think I'd consult a broken clock before Peter Schiff

Macy's has a 20 percent sale, the dumb folks rush in.
Wall St has a 20 percent off sale, the dumb folk run out.
These days I live on my dividends. Stock prices don't really worry me.
I reinvest about half of them so a correction is okay with me.

Cliff managed to combine 2 of his standard posts (I am brilliant & I am rich) into one post.

Green doesn't become you.

Money wise, I am fairly comfortable. I just don't need to brag about it on a daily basis