Eight years have now passed since 9/11, and the Dow is essentially unchanged since that horrible, sad day. On 9/11/01, the Dow was at 9,605. The index is currently trading just 15 points below that level at 9,590.
The stocks that made up the index that day have had big moves, however. Hewlett Packard (HPQ) is up the most with a gain of 157%, while General Motors is bankrupt. Caterpillar (CAT), McDonald's (MCD), United Technologies (UTX), Exxon Mobil (XOM), and Procter & Gamble (PG) are all up more than 50%, while Alcoa (AA), General Electric (GE), Eastman Kodak (EK), and Citigroup (C) are all down more than 50%. Coca-Cola (KO) and Microsoft (MSFT) are currently trading the closest to where they were on 9/11/01.
Excellent blog and lots of valuable information. It reiterates the fact that "buy and hold" is dead.
In my opinion, it is all a matter of market timing. It does not matter if it is gold, oil, or Microsoft, if you have access to good market timing signals, they will help you get in and out at a profit.
No guarantees in this business, but if they are right most of the time, you can still make $s.
There are many web sites providing them out there (search Google). Just find one that works and use it! Check out http://invetrics.com as an example.
Its Dow Jones index timing signals are up a respectable 52% for the year (as of 9/11/09) and it is free of charge for individual investors.
Following a market timing system works!
Posted by: Michael | September 13, 2009 at 06:55 AM
IBM is up 22% since 9/11. Yippee!! Wasn't it worth more than 300 bucks a share in the 1980's?
Posted by: Matkov | September 13, 2009 at 11:59 PM
Matkov,
You're not taking splits into account for IBM. At it's low in the 80s, IBM was at $12. Its high for the 80s was about $43. So from its lows in the 80s, IBM is up more than 800%. From its highs in the 80s, it's up more than 150%.
Posted by: Justin | September 14, 2009 at 02:15 PM