Waiting out the downside
Name: Gerald Ray Bruce
Age: 76
Hometown: Kingston, Okla.
I wanted to jump out of the market as soon as it started to slide, but my best advisor said "wait out the downside until you feel it's getting close to the bottom and then buy, buy, buy." I bought some as the market was falling, some when the market bottomed and some when it started to rise again.
I had lost 65% of my portfolio by March 2009, but have since gained back more than half of that. I also bought more as the market started to recover. My greatest losses were in Citigroup, Alcatel-Lucent, Level 3 Communications and Fannie Mae. El Paso, Motorola, Ford Motor and Bank of America pulled me back up.
One year later, my total portfolio is nearly 10% higher.
NEXT: Staying the course
