On withdrawl freeze by 401k...

Yet another reason to stay away from 401k (or mutual funds, in general): withdrawal freeze by 401k because fund managers would not allow people to withdraw their money, with worries that it would force the fund to sell assets in a depressed market at substantially reduced price.

This is but one of the reasons why I have come to dislike 401k and mutual funds in general. On top of the fees that one has to pay, regardless of the mediocre (if not downright bad) performance, I can't fathom how someone could stop me from withdrawing my money, due to the potential adverse impact on the funds (and other fundholders). Isn't the fund supposed to maintain sufficient level of liquidity to allow for redemption needs?

I've been glad to have rolled over my 401k to an Rollover IRA and manage the money myself. I was giddy too, since I've made some decent profit today (one of my transactions made 20% net profit trading in two days). As it is, my trading ability, thereby my gains, is currently limited to the amount of time that it takes for settlement. If only US can catch up with the rest of the world and give us T+1 (like Hong Kong Stock Exchange), instead of T+3...

I'm not really fanatic about basic research or financial news, and I stick with only solid companies and ETF index funds. I don't even watch TV, never mind the always-on CNN, various talking heads on network news, and the numerous bloggingheads. I find most of those simply talking up each other's soundbites, with nothing much new add to it. If there's any new news, I only want to read or hear it once. I don't want to waste my time hearing or watching 100+ different people talking about the same thing or topics. That's why it's helpful to browse the headlines. It gives you a feel for things (and economy, in general) without having to be bogged down by details. If an article looks interesting, I read on.

I guess that keeps me sane: Not get too gloomy when everyone's talking down the economy, but not too giddy when everyone's chasing the market. I watch for trends, I set goals, I attain them, and I take profit. I don't get greedy, and I don't do regrets. If I don't get out on a stock on its high, that's ok. As long as I get the profit I want, I don't mind leaving some money on the table. Everyone needs some crumbs to feed on. And I take a longer term view: I don't have urgent need to get out of a stock (since I would not have bought it if I don't like it), so I'll just buy-and-hold the dogs. As a matter of fact, right now my cash-to-investment ratio is 70%, meaning I'm using only 30% of my funds for trading, while my overall year-to-date performance is 15%. I couldn't ask for more. The 70% cash buffer is more than comfortable, since it's FDIC insured and ready for investment, if I want to; and I don't mind cutting loss if all the 30% goes down the drain.

There's an old Chinese (Cantonese) saying: fortune don't come to pockets in need. Loosely translated, it means, when you're desperate (urgent need for money), fortune won't come your way. Maybe it's the emotions that come in the way, or maybe there's some kind of natural law governing, but there's quite some truth and wisdom in it. Just ask how many desperate gamblers who need to win big in casino, and turn out losing everything.

I don't know if my kids are learning from me by observing what I do. Although they probably won't see much actions from me in trading (since I work my real job most of the time, and I only check the market once in a while), I do share with them what my trading performance is like. Perhaps one day, they'll pick up some tricks of the trade, from a layman like me. :)