|
COPYRIGHT 2000 The Miami Herald
Byline: Harriet Johnson Brackey
Apr. 25--Five percent this way, five percent that way, who cares? Individual investors are not leaving the market, despite these days of major market swings.
In fact, they're getting used to volatility, which is on the rise. No matter what comes along, investors for the most part are remaining steady or even increasing their exposure to stocks. The dips have forced even the most experienced investors to refocus attention on risk, not on the highest returns.
You can see this by comparing what individuals did on two very different weeks this year.
On Friday, Feb. 18 -- the fifth consecutive Friday downturn -- the Nasdaq, S & P and Dow all dropped about 3 percent. Then investors went home for the Presidents' Day weekend.
When markets opened the following Tuesday, individuals unloaded $6 billion in stock mutual funds in a single day, according to TrimTabs, a market research firm.
Now, this month: Friday, April 14, the Nasdaq was clobbered, losing 9.7 percent, three times worse than that February Friday, and the Standard & Poors and Dow fell 5.8 and 5.7 percent, respectively.
But last Monday, only $2.3 billion flowed out of U.S. stock mutual funds. TrimTabs described the outflow as "modest." And this was on the day some people were raising cash for taxes.
Investors today have far more information and far...
Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.
|
Bookmark this article
Print this article
Link to this article
Email this article
Digg It!
Add to del.icio.us
RSS
