Several of us do. Lots of us are smart. The clever among us won't tell you what to do, they'll tell you how to do what you want. This should also be what financial advisors do but they've had a powerful disincentive from doing so until very recently. Trump's white house actually allowed the fiduciary rule to roll forward but even still, we're kind of at "they're not allowed to actively fuck you over anymore" and a long way from "they have to help you out." I had to read a number of books before I felt comfortable doing what I wanted to do rather than what "the authorities" want you to do. If you're used to reading scientific journals, keep in mind that most financial advisors are business majors that aren't particularly comfortable with algebra, let alone higher math... and that derivatives and leveraged ETFs have higher math in them. Here's a good thread to take a peak at: But before you do any deep diving in there, take this to heart: YOU ARE NOT SUFFERING BY WAITING. I've been in cash since November and I'm not at all upset about that. Just speaking in this moment, there aren't a lot of people talking about upsides and there are lots of people talking about downsides. Whatever you've come into, you're losing absolutely nothing from leaving it exactly where it is, doing absolutely zero, until you've got a hang of all this.
As always, much appreciated. I needed someone to tell me to just chill out and take my time.
Set a timer. I'll do it often. The classic argument is that if you missed the 5 best days since 1993 you'd have passed up on most of your gains. The argument made less often is if you missed the 5 worst days since 1993 you'd be fuckin' killin' it. https://www.ifa.com/12steps/step4/missing_the_best_and_worst_days/ Miss the 5 best days: $10k to $38k instead of $58k. Miss the 5 worst days: $10k to $90k instead of $58k. And then they usually say "so you should be invested all the time because we're business majors and can't do fucking math."