All this doom & gloom...fear & panic... only further creates...

All this doom & gloom...fear & panic... only further creates herd like behaviour. A great piece written by Jason Zweig keeps things in perspective.

"As an investor, however, it is vital to separate what you can truly controlfrom what is beyond your control. The only thing you can know for sure is that stocks are steadily getting cheaper. You cannot control whether or not the market will continue to trash stocks, but you can control how you respond. If we are not heading into depression, panic hardly seems justifiable.
What if we are? Even during the great depression, the best investment results were earned not by people who fled stocks for the saftey of bonds and cash, but by those who stepped up and bought stocks and kept buying all the way down."

We may not have the deep pockets to execute this plan, but quality companies do. Timing the market is impossible. Spending time in the market, holding quality businesses is practical and possible.