I should go back to all of those market timing threads from January and February this year, where people were crying about the coming stock meltdown. They were so absolutely convinced I was an idiot for continuing to buy stocks every week, even in the middle of a meltdown. Well, I bought VTSMX at 45 and VDE at 74.
If they really want to play the "who times the market better" trades comparison game, I think I'm going to win. Those of us who buy on the regular are virtually guaranteed to buy at the bottom.
You invest in sector funds?
I think that was a question directed at me personally, so I'll offer a personal answer.
The vast majority of my investments are on autopilot. Automatic bank transfers into index funds every few days, about 90% stocks and 10% bonds. The stocks are over half domestic, some international, and a tiny bit emerging markets.
But I'm only human, and even I feel the constant pull to sabotage my investment strategy by seeking out market deals. So I've allocated a few hundred dollars per month (less than 5% of my total monthly savings) for playing with. The money goes into a taxable brokerage account that I've mentally earmarked for future college costs, which means it is not money that is necessary to the financial success of my family. In that account, each month I purchase ETFs that I think look attractive at the time, which usually means VT (total world stock market) but sometimes means VDE (energy) or VWO (emerging markets index). Never individual stocks. It's purely a guessing game, and like most investors I have on average guessed wrong and thus slightly underperformed the other 95% of my portfolio.
But it satiates my need for the illusion of control, without doing significant harm. And it means I occasionally get to pat myself on the back for buying low into a volatile fund that spikes 5% in the hours after I buy it.