Investment Plan

摘要

The stock market has been on a roller-coaster ride lately - the sub-prime mortgage mess, rising energy and commodity prices, and waning consumer confidence have combined to pull the broad U.S. stock market indexes down from historic highs set in fall 2007. The downdraft approached nearly negative 20 percent before slightly rebounding as the first quarter of 2008 ended. Trading volumes spiked as many investors rushed to sell and move their money to something safer. Now, billions of dollars in cash sits on the sidelines, awaiting a clear direction from the market. Does this money movement make sense? No, according to data from investment research firms Dalbar Inc. and Morn-ingstar. Dalbar's Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior 2007 study showed the stock market - as measured by the Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 Index - gained an average 11.8 percent a year from 1987 through the end of 2006. During that time, the average stock mutual fund investor earned a paltry 4.3-percent average return - a difference of 7.5 percent a year.