The mid-stock tracker is actually pretty good but you can spend months reading into stuff. There's a million different opinions that mysteriously only come to light with the advent of hindsight. As long as you choose USA and pick a broad cheap tracker you'll not go far wrong. 

Life's too short to look too deeply and the important point is to be a passive investor. As Buffet said, stick it in a tracker, never look at a headline and fret, just let time do it's thing. You should review it every 5 years or so, maybe every 10, but whatever you do keep putting money in on a monthly basis regardless of what's happening in the world. And for the love of God do not pull out when it's going tits up. It'll go tits up many times over 20 - 30 years but keep putting in and try and relax. When you're nearing pension age you should look at putting some of it into bonds and things like that but that's way off right now.

I know! Fucksake. I’m waiting for it to crash again before I chip in.

I was being facetious. Don’t worry.

It does, which is why the thread started when it did, but that doesn't matter once it's up and running. And I'd certainly not start investing just because there hasn't been a crash! If things have been going up for the last six years I'd probably start one but put half the initial investment in a cash isa and half on stocks and shares, and then transfer the cash bit once there is a crash.

Sometimes there's a mini crash for no reason that lasts for a couple of months or so. It'll dip slightly for whatever reason and will trigger a chain reaction of algo selling and then active investors stay to panic and it tumbles even more.

That's a good time to jump in without having to wait for a really mental crash, or stick a bit extra in for a couple of months if your already investing.

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/stocks-biggest-50-day-rally-what-they-did-next-past-2020-6-1029282236

We certainly timed it well.

you should have said it would go up this much this quick, i'd have sold some kidneys to invest more

Bout 20% for me. If we had more cash that we didn't need right now we'd be banging it in.

Bloomberg Businessweek’s front cover this week seems relevant.

“The great disconnect: Why do stocks keep going up?”

It's thermodynamics mate.

(Generally, I think people are investing in the idea that reopening shops and businesses will lead to profits pretty sharpish. But I am not an economist.)

poprock wrote:

Buy the magazine and find out.

Wait for SG to read it and tell us.

Dinostar77 wrote:

poprock wrote:

Buy the magazine and find out.

Wait for SG to read it and tell us.

It doesn't mean anything. The markets rarely make any sense and are largely unpredictable so trying to predict it is more or less a waste of time. Markets are driven by greed and fear, so they bounce around a bit over the years because people are people. 

I remember having an argument a few years ago with Nexx who was saying not to invest because a US election was looming and it was a terrible time to buy because Trump etc. I was arguing just to buy anyway because there's always SOMETHING. He was arguing not to buy because SCARY TRUMP. 

The only thing that really matters is time. Lots of time and a broad tracker will make you more money than a bank account, who take your money and just invest it for themselves anyway. Or charge you silly when you don't have money. Rich or poor, they will make money.

In fact here's the actual post:

Nexx wrote:

If you're serious about leaving it for 3 to 5 years then yeah a tracker is a great investment, especially over something like a cash ISA.  But there's a pretty good chance that broad equity exposure over the short term isn't going to be a great investment.  The end of quantitative easing, rising interest rates and some key elections next year are going to make it a pretty challenging year for equity markets that could just as easily put some of you off investing if you were expecting shorter term gains.

Mainly, I remember you were stating explicitly it was a bad time to invest and I was stating explicitly it wasn't. You were talking about politics and I was not. Your advice, in hindsight, was wrong. Really wrong. Stocks soared. 

My point is that you lot don't know anything. We don't either but we admit it and the fees are low.

I suspect Nexx isn't doing this for a living. That would be scumbag status, and I assume he's not like that. He might be financially wrong but that doesn't mean he's a total money grabbing twat.