When You're Tied Up in a Down Market

How to Play Your Stocks When They Keep Falling

For a few months, it seemed the worst was over. But after the Dow Jones industrial average neared bear market territory last week, investors and their advisers were left wondering once again how much more they can take.

"Collectively, we thought that we were probably 90 to 95 percent finished with the credit crisis," said Georges Yared, chief investment officer of Yared Investment Research in Minneapolis. "One of the things that people like, whether you're an individual investor or an institutional investor, is clarity. We're not there yet. We don't have the clarity."

What's clear is this: While the stock market is down, oil prices, worries about inflation and unemployment are up. To make matters worse, more write-downs are expected at major companies such as Citigroup. So if your money's tied up in the stock market, what are you to do?

First of all, if you've properly diversified your investments among various sectors and stocks, bonds and mutual funds, strategists suggest you just hold tight.

"From a long-term perspective, if you get it right the first time, you shouldn't have to change it," said Stephen Horan, the head of private wealth for CFA Institute, a Charlottesville nonprofit group that certifies financial analysts.

Not everyone gets it right, though. What if you bought too many shares in Citigroup, which analysts downgraded last week on the expectation that the company will take more write-downs? What if you have too few technology and too many energy stocks?

"If you do find that you perhaps made a mistake when you set up an investment plan and had too big a bet someplace, you should move to straighten that out," said Gus Sauter, chief investment officer at Vanguard.

But don't do it just because you're scared, he said. "Step back for a moment from what's going on at this instant, don't overreact, take a look at your investments and remember why you originally placed money in that investment and what the purpose is and your time horizon," Sauter said.

If you decide selling is the right move, make sure you do it a little at a time. "Selling today will lock in that loss. Our recommendation would be to continue to trim but don't do a wholesale fire sale," said William Keller, senior vice president and director of investments for the Washington region at PNC.

Yared, on the other hand, thinks that if it's a real loser, you should not be afraid to dump it. "From an investors' point of view, you have to be somewhat coldhearted," he said.

Do a lot of research beforehand, a rule that applies to both buying and selling, he said. Look at balance sheets, stock prices, growth rates, the history of the company. Read its quarterly and annual reports. All that information and more is available on the Internet, he said.

"If I don't receive real clear direction from their management, where they can stand up and look people in the eye and say, 'We're done with write-offs,' and there's still that wishy-washy language, I don't want to be part of it," Yared said.