Our brains are wired for quick fight or flee decisions. We are great at knowing instantly to hide or run away from dangerous animals. But we are terrible at avoiding dangerous financial situations. Knowing how to invest your savings is not something you are born with. You’ll need to learn this.

Should I take now some of my savings and invest them in the market? The stock markets are having these nice gains the last few weeks. Fear starts to creep in. Is it my strategy that I am missing the big market rally?

It seems that everybody else get these great returns. But my savings are getting just this miserable interest at the bank account. What to do?

In situations like this, rule #1 is to avoid impulsive reactions.

Will the stock market crash in 2012? Find out here what we think and what the rationale is behind our opinion. Don’t believe anyone who gives you predictions with certainty. The stock market trends of 2012 will build on those of 2011. 

Now at the beginning of 2012, it is a good time to look back at the stock market trends of 2011. This will not be the final account. The real review of the long-term stock market trends of 2011 can only take place in 6 months.

How we shall interpret the movements of the last few months will then only be clear. But here is what we can say now already.

US Market Trends

Market timing has a bad reputation... which is not completely justified. Opponents say that you cannot be smarter than the market. They argue that you can be lucky a few times but not consistently.

The problem is that the term “market timing” is used for a variety of investing strategies. When you discuss the merits of a market timing strategy, you first want to distinguish between short-term and long-term strategies.