Portfolio Update

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I'm fully invested now. I will have to wait at least for 2 - 3 months for cash. I felt like I a kid in a candy store and just can't help but to buy as things are very cheap. I have no regrets that the price went down further, just hope that it will go down a lot more lower when I got more cash. I don't care if they stay this way for next 5 - 10 years. Market oh market - please wait for me!

Yesterday was a very funny day. Dow closed 11% which was one of those best days despite of a very bad news - consumer confidence sank to 38 way off of consensus estimates of 52. Does that means investors think enough is enough, they don't care about recessions or consumer spending contraction anymore? As I drafted this on Oct 29 prior to the US market open, I don't know how they are going to react with the Fed decision on interest rate. Are we through with pricing in a recession ? Too early to tell, let's see how they are going to react with a few more bad economy numbers like unemployment, GDP numbers and etc.

Some old man advice here:-

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Jack Bogle, founder of mutual-fund giant Vanguard Group, is a longtime detractor of the speculative products and schemes that snowball individual investors and enrich Wall Street.

Bogle's had a lot to criticize, as investment options for individuals became increasingly exotic and expensive. Now, with the U.S. stock market having given up the past several years' worth of gains and on track for its worst year since the Great Depression, it's painfully clear that speculation works both ways.
In a recent interview, Bogle surveyed the mess on Wall Street and offered his view on how investors got to this point and what they should do now.
MarketWatch: What's your take on the market's meltdown?
Bogle: We've had this orgy of speculation and it's crowded out intelligent investing. I'm certain we're in a recession and I'm certain it's going to get worse. But we have to get back to investing and not focusing minute by minute.
What's ridiculous about this is that back at the 2000 high, and again at last autumn's high, the Standard & Poor's 500 (SPX:
SPX 940.51, +91.59, +10.8%) was valued at about $15 trillion. It's now about $9 trillion. Does anybody in their right mind think that the value of American business has dropped by $6 trillion? American business has grown every year in little ways and big, because that capital produces earnings.
In this speculative market we've forgotten the fact that investment fundamentals prevail. The dividend yield on the S&P 500 has gone from 1% to 3%, while the market is down almost 40%. The book value of the S&P has almost doubled, from $2.3 trillion to $4.2 trillion. Instead of having a market price of seven times book value, the market price is twice book. The market relative to the book value and dividends it pays is far cheaper than it's been in a long time.
Q: How can people look at this crisis more rationally?
A: Count your blessings, American investors, because you're probably in the world's best-performing stock market. If you're following the rules of asset allocation, diversification and long-term horizon, stay the course. That's what I'm doing. I haven't changed my allocation since 2000: it's about 75% bonds and 25% stocks. I barely calculate it every year.
Q: How do you see the financial system recovering?
A: We'll need a lot of regulation of financial institutions on capital requirements and balance-sheet quality. Hedge funds' huge importance to the system will ultimately fall of its own weight. And the system will correct itself, probably the hard way, through government intervention.
Q: What would be a sign that the worst of this bear market is over?
A: There will be a point at which stocks will turn, long before the economy does. It's a year or a year-and-a-half to go before the economy reaches bottom. We've got a lot of toxicity to get rid of in our system. We need patience and fortitude; 90% to 95% of what's going on is due to speculators. Turnover in the market this year will be 330%. Last year it was 280%. In 1929 it was 140%. This is a crazy era and we're letting the speculators run the train. We're letting the nuts run the insane asylum. Eventually speculators lose.
Q: What should individual investors do now?
A: The fundamental things will apply as time goes by. What we're seeing is the madness of crowds. We've lost our way. We have too much in costs and not enough value, too much speculation and not enough investing.
The way to insulate yourself is to follow a couple of simple rules. First, allocate your assets intelligently. If you're in over your head, on margin, you have to get some of your money out of the stock market.
Second, have your bond position equal your age. If you're 70 years old and have 70% bonds in this market, you're not bad off. If you're in your 20s or 30s and 70% in stocks, you're going to be investing for decades.