Please, Everyone: Ignore Jim Cramer

Filed under: Understanding The Crisis

We had a good question from listener Dan Griner on the podcast. He asked if he should follow Jim Cramer's advice and sell all his stocks.

Simple answer: no.

Longer answer: Absolutely Not.

We don't offer personal financial advice here on Planet Money. Believe me, you wouldn't want it if we did.

But these wise words from the always-worth-reading Megan McArdle sum up the smart view:

Don't look. Seriously, don't look. I have no idea what's going on with any of my equity investments, because that is not short term money that I need to keep my eye on.

If you look you will get upset, and you will be tempted to do something stupid. I can't guarantee that the market won't drop further and you won't regret having held on. But as a general rule, selling into a massive liquidity crisis is a pretty bad idea. Selling in a panic because your assets just dropped 30% is almost certainly a bad idea.

The good news is that while the stock market can take a long time to recover, it historically doesn't actually go down for more than a couple of years.

Yeah, that's not very good news. But unless you're planning to retire right now, my advice remains the same: don't look.

Adam Davidson

8:23 AM ET | 10- 7-2008 | permalink

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