Dec 5, 2007

David Kathman on the dangers of bear funds

Using a bear market fund to try to benefit from the market going down is a fool's game for most people. Even the smart people who spend their career doing that can't time the market right over a long period. ... They're playing a dangerous game, and they're only thinking about how much they can win now, and that kind of thinking doesn't usually pay off.

The average investor probably shouldn't be in these funds and certainly shouldn't be buying them when the market is going down, which is when they get the most attention. They're watching the market go down and are thinking 'If I just had a bear-market fund, I could be picking up big gains here' and that's not what bear-market funds are all about.

David Kathman, mutual fund analyst at Morningstar Inc., "Grizzly discovery;
Once a bear market begins, it's too late for 'bear' funds to help
," MarketWatch, December 4, 2007, by Chuck Jaffe

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