Up, up and away

The stock market lost 300 points the other day. Ouch. The markets have been going up for awhile, so you had to wonder when the bottom might fall out. It couldn't have kept going up forever. It's never done that, yet people have an expectation that it will. If it loses some steam, that's fine. Markets are like people or machinery. They can't run at 100% all the time. The stress and strain on the system running at max will ruin the system. Best to have some planned downtime to allow the machinery to cool off, recharge, and prepare to go higher. (I want to say this is called queuing theory, but I'm not 100% sure.)

It's a fine balance: You have to know when you're tired and need to pull back, when you're rested and ready to jump back in. But most importantly, not be afraid to call a timeout.