Stay Away

Let me say this, as someone who's job it is to monitor stock markets and economic activity, the stock market (not only the U.S.) is simply unplayable right now. While there is definitely "value" developing (buy when things are low sell when they are high), things are moving too fast, price movements are spastic, and stock trading is being governed by machines and programs. I cannot in all honesty give a solid and confident stock market forecast b/c at this point it would be a blatant guess given the volatility of stock prices and the changing economic landscape of the global economy. Keep your cash positions higher than normal. This is some of the CRAZIEST stock market volatility and price movement that I've ever seen and read about in all the research I've down over the years even dating back to college. As I'm writing now, the U.S. stock market has swung from being down almost 1,000 points (7%) to being down only (1.5%)... that is unbelievably scary up and down activity...which goes to show why my blog is named "Riding the Rollercoaster". I am not sure now is the time to start buying stocks yet. We need to see some stability b/c an investor could still get caught catching a falling knife. The being said, we could have seen some "capitulation", which is where there is soo much selling that the selling will cease and stocks will move up slightly (which seems to be happening). I'm going over my notes and my current fund and stock holdings to see what the best risk/reward move should be....if we see another big swoosh down, I might look to add a small amount to my current fund holdings. Overall, I continue to believe the U.S. stock market will end 2015 down 5-10% for the year...at this point however over the near and intermediate term I need a quarter to toss up and see what happens