1.09.2006

Dow Breaks Glass Ceiling, goes Above 11,000

I've mentioned my good friend, Matthew Brown, my personal investment guru on the daddycast. He somehow found a way to slip me a note (well, an IM actually) while teaching students in Taiwan the basics of English idioms, like "I caught wind of a move in the stock market".

His students were baffled. They thought he was complaining of a bad smell on the farm, perhaps caused by flatulent cattle.

He was referring, of course, to the new high water mark the DJIA hit in today's trading. Its the first time the Dow Jones Industrial Average has been at this mark since before 9/11...good luck finding this on the front pages of any newspapers, though. But Matt had predicted this on Episode 120, and sure enough, 2 weeks later, here we are, above 11,000.

Matthew sent me a note to advise me to move all my available capital (i.e. cash or money market funds, which I could transfer without penalties or fees) into the domestic mutual funds I have in my portfolio. I have 5 of those. Their trading symbols are HMVMX, VIIIX, DRLCX, OTCFX and VIEIX. I don't make money selling these, I just buy 'em through my employer's 401(k) plan.

If you've been listening to the podcast regularly, you already know that Matt and I talk about our investments "over a beer" as it were, and I promised to keep you, the listeners informed as we moved money into and out of these funds. Well, we're all in! every penny of available capital in my investment portfolio is now "in play", and has been spread across these 5 funds equally, 20% in each.

The market can change very quickly, and the idea Matt uses is to preserve gains and minimize losses. Sounds like a simple plan, but timing is important. He watches where the money is going and follows it, pushing money into funds during up trends and pulling money out of funds during down trends. We're in an upward swing now...let's see how far up we can go!

So, for those of you thinking of establishing an investment fund for a college education for your kids, now would be a good time.

NOTE: We are not professional investors, nor do we even pretend to be. Use this information at your own risk. If this is all gibberish to you, consult an investment guy before risking your hard-earned money, OK? 'Nuff said?

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