fair enough about managing your money. i agree with that having...

fair enough about managing your money. i agree with that having had similar experiences.

the method i use is technicals to time the market at this point in the cycle - fundamentals to pick which stocks to buy

we are nearing top of this equity cycle.  Of the US big 4 indices, only the Dow still trades below 20x forward earnings. the Russell 2000 trailing PE is 81x.  When markets get defensive, ratios like that become a problem http://online.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3021-peyield.html

Im not saying it ends tomorrow. I think there are 4-5 months left.
But in periods before corrections the overall markets tend to spin on the spot - more sideways than up.

so I shift from buy and hold to buying the dips and selling the peaks - buy and hold achieves very little  unless it coincides with dividends or you are writing options against blue chip holdings.

the 50-200 day moving average is a very influential longer term technical. I explained how it works so ill leave that there.  but thats a key way to time the market.

50 day moves above 200 day average you buy - sell when it goes vice versa.

So = while I may still buy BOQ at some point - being decently priced and moving to div -  i now wont sit in it until we;re much closer to dividend time - because of overall market risk being to the downside.

til that trend changes - the down days are bigger and the up days smaller.  i learnt painful lessons buying into that phase trying to average my entry price - before I learnt technicals/

if boq does a special div or has some other positive i might miss out. but cest la vie.,