Try a hedge fund, they (can) make money in up, down or sideways markets. The DOW went pretty much sideways in may-mid june and I made a 24% 1-month return using an iron condor (option strategy).
401(k)s just buy and hold, mostly mutual funds. Mutual fund managers, by law, can't use hedging strategies used by hedge funds (going long and short stocks, use of sophisticated options/futures/derivatives instruments, etc). However, there are instruments, like ETFs, that you can "buy" as a way to short stocks or short indexes without having to actually short anything, so you can even hedge your 401(k) portfolio if you want to have ETFs in there. Look for "short" or "ultrashort" (levereged) ETFs. http://www.proshares.com/funds Add some hedging, plus tax benefits, and if your employee matches, even better. As far as taking money out, most 401(k) plans allow you to borrow money out of your plan, but you have to pay it back, with interest. But guess who you pay interest to: you! (your 401k that is). Many money managers advise against borrowing against your 401(k) unless you're absolutely sure you can pay it back and won't get buried in debt because if you do you fail to pay it back eventually have to pay those withdrawal penalties that you're trying to avoid in the first place, and there's less money in the fund to grow, potentially hurting your long-term gains. On Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 8:55 AM, robert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Off topic, 401k's these days ($2 billion in total losses) aren't as > attractive for retirement (pulling out early would incur higher costs, > up to 40-50%). I'd be curious (i'm not looking for a position with any > company) what other options companies are putting together to offset > this. > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ SD Ruby mailing list [email protected] http://groups.google.com/group/sdruby -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
