IWM Reddit Mentions | ChartExchange

I have been investing for 50 years. For a number of years, I tried investing in individual stocks. I made many short term investments, locking in small gains. There was also a few huge losers. I kept track of every investment and had spread sheet formulas that showed how much I made over the years. It turned out that I pretty much broke even. What a waste of time. In the mean time, I made a fortune in my 401k that was invested in mutual funds.
Today, I invest that money mostly in index etfs. Index's always go up over time so they are safe long term. This is because the US economy is always growing. If it does not, than we are all in trouble. Today, I read expert advice that validates what I have already learned for myself.
I recently read a deep analysis into investing in individual stocks. Almost none of them do well long term. Statistics show that if you want to invest in individual stocks for a time, you are best investing in 200 of them. If you invest short term, it is pretty much a gamble. No one knows what a stock will do. If it was easy, there would be a lot of very rich investors. For example, in the nineties, Apple computer was in the news everyday. It was up and then it was down. I would not have touched it with a ten foot pole. If I had bought it, I would have sold it when it went up perhaps 10%. I should have bought it and held it for 20 years, but who does that? So, here we are today. Is Apple a good stock to buy? who knows. In the nineties, everyone was buying Amazon, but I did not buy it because it had never made money. It was always losing.
My advice is to use your inteligence and experience to manage a balance of index etf's based on your risk tolerance, unserstanding of each index, and what is going on in the world. Don't be afraid to hold cash for a time if it makes sense. Don't try to nickel and dime it. Invest on big moves. Don't sell to early in an upswing, and only buy when the markets are significantly low. You won't make any money trying to gamble on small swings. Warren Buffet said that the stock market is a vehicle that transfers wealth from the impatient to the patient. He also suggests that beginners invest mostly in the S&P and a smaller portion in the tech heavy Nasdaq (QQQ). You can watch your investment balance every day, but you do not need to buy and sell every day. Just keep an eye on what is happening and live your life. Don't be fearful, even though sometimes you need to ride out a down turn, or not buy in an upswing in fear of missing out.
My core investment is the S&P etf (SPY). Most fund managers are trying to do as well as the S&P and they rarely do. So why would I invest my money in a managed fund that costs more and does not do as well as the S&P? I add to SPY, other indexes and am usually heavy into technology (FTEC is the Fidleity etf for technology). I also keep some semi conductors (SOXX). They are more aggressive. I also diversify into other etf's such as financials, at appropriate times.
There are 11 major indexes that make up the S&P:
Technology
Energy
Utilities
Real Estate
Communications
Consumer Staples
Consumer Discretionary
Health Care
Materials
Industrials
Finacials
Some of these are not as aggressive as others. For example everyone needs health care, utilites and consumer staples, even when the economy is down, so these do not move as much.
There are also other indexes such as home buidling (XHB), and small cap (IWM)
Check out the long term charts and you will get a good idea of how these inedexes move and how well they do over time.