for the most part almost all of my clients have the attitude of “on the next rally” I want out of the market. 
This is what i fear the most. For this reason, i think we could see a cap on the market for years. There will be selling into every decent rally. Thats why i am getting totally away from money managers - i have been moving away from them for a few years now, but now i definately want some control over the money.
Back to the topic, I hope fritz is right and when the rally comes, investors will see it as an opportunity to make their money back, rather than an opportunity to get out. But i fear that will not be the case, for at least a long while.

Just a 30,000 ft overview here. This level of pessimism both in the markets and in our profession has historically marked serious, long-term bottoms. We’re at an 11.5 year low on the Dow (as of yesterday). Keep proactively talking to your clients about your (legitimate) reasons to do the right thing (as you believe it to be) and keep seeking out quality new clients the same way and we’re all still in the best business on earth. Have a great weekend everybody!

What is the avg LOS for most advisors on this sight? We all understand how bad it is, but

[quote=ML for Life]What is the avg LOS for most advisors on this sight? We all understand how bad it is, but

To answer ML’s question, coming up on 10 LOS.
 It is definitely gut-check time. Time to take a good hard look at our beliefs and business models. For me, the questions were, Do I still have confidence in the US economy  to recommend buying corporate, muni and govt. assets? Do I have the expertise and communications skills to really help investors? and, Is my business set up efficiently with a capability to remaining profitable (i.e., can I generate and KEEP enough revenue). My answers were, yes, yes and yes. This is a great business and investors NEED OUR HELP now, more than ever. Work your asses off to get it to them and we can all still thrive.

YHWY & 2WHEELED...That's what I wanted to hear guys!!! These are the types of sentiments we need to be posting. Let's leave the end of the free world stuff to main stream media. We don't have the luxury to be doom and gloom, we've got familes to take care of and businesses to run.

I am detecting a little trend forming where clients are pissed at the market, dissapointed with funds that historically are good but short term puked, and are receptive to buying stocks in companies they feel will not go out of biz -BAC, WMT, DUK, etc. I would put GE in there but who’s to say about them. Don’t listen to Cramer much but he has been pushing sustainable (he thinks) yield hogs. If only we could charge a 1% wrap on a CD ladder!

[quote=Gordon Gekko] If only we could charge a 1% wrap on a CD ladder![/quote]
As an RIA, you can certainly charge an advisory fee for a CD ladder, just as you would for any assets under management.   It wouldn’t typically be a wrap fee, but I presume you’re using that term in the generic sense rather than the legal sense. 

WSJ: Ignore the market til February

Down in the morning, up in the afternoon. Or is it the other way around? The topsy-turvy stock market is tough to read.

In the last year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has briefly been over 13,000 and below 8,000. The past month has felt like the Cyclone roller coaster on Brooklyn's Coney Island -- lots of ups and downs, the whole rickety thing feeling like it's going to crash at any minute.

Great investors are taught to listen to the market. Each tick of the tape has something to say about expectations for growth, inflation, policy changes and looming recessions. The stock market is like a giant mass of pulsing plasma doing price discovery and a game of hot potato, getting stocks into the correct hands with the right risk profile. It's way too big for any one person to manipulate, let alone touch directly. Instead, millions of us provide input with our buying and selling decisions.

When it's at its most efficient, with buyers and sellers neatly matched up at the right price, it's a pretty good predictor. The Crash of 1929 announced a recession, and the wake-up call unheeded might have caused many of the bad policies leading to the Great Depression. The Crash of 1987? Not so much.

You see, the market is a great manipulator. In September, the Dow dropped 700 points intraday after the House of Representatives voted down the Treasury's TARP bank-rescue bill. Spooked, the House passed the bill the next week. Or how about this? The Dow was up 300 points on Election Day applauding an Obama victory and then down 1,600 points since.

The market can also be a bold-faced liar. On Jan. 22, the Fed announced an emergency 75-basis-point rate cut in response to huge drops in European markets. A few days later, it came out that a rogue trader at Société Générale lost them $7 billion and the bank was unwinding his positions. Oops.

So which is it now: an efficient mechanism or a manipulating liar? Should you listen to it warning of doom or anticipating renewal? I'd say stick wax in your ears and don't listen to the market until February.

Don't get me wrong. The freezing of the credit markets is wreaking havoc on the world economy. Corporate profits are dropping. Central banks are fighting off deflation and may not turn off the spigots fast enough -- which could ignite runaway inflation. But because of the credit mess, I am convinced the stock market is at its least efficient today. Don't read too much into any move. Here are the five biggest dislocations taking place:

- Tax-loss selling: Whenever you have a loss in a stock -- and who doesn't -- it's always tax smart to sell it, take a tax loss and either buy something similar or wait 30 days and buy the original one back. December can be an ugly month of indiscriminate selling. The December effect will be huge this year.

- Mutual-fund redemptions: Mutual funds are also dumped for tax losses. When the stock market is down in the morning, it's usually because of mutual-fund redemptions.

Fidelity's giant Magellan fund, down 56%, is one of many in the $6 trillion stock-fund business having an awful year. As investors call or click to get out of these funds, Fidelity and the others have to unload shares the next morning to raise cash. This forced-selling overwhelms the system. New York Stock Exchange specialists, who are supposed to maintain an orderly market, stop buying and back away. You get huge drops, which can unnerve even more investors and cause them to redeem.

- Mutual fund cap-gain distributions: To make matters worse, in December mutual funds do capital-gains distributions. In a down year like 2008, you would think there are no taxes to pay. Think again. Legg Mason's Value Trust, run by Bill Miller, outperformed the market for 15 years by buying many "unvalue" names like Amazon. As investors redeem, he is forced to sell many of these stocks originally purchased at very low prices, triggering huge capital gains in a year his fund is down 62%. You can almost guarantee investors also will sell more of these funds to pay their unexpected tax bill.

- Hedge-fund redemptions: Instead of overnight selling like mutual funds, hedge funds typically require 45 days' notice for investors to get out of a fund. They've been furiously selling since September to raise cash to pay investors. This usually shows up as a set of stocks that just go down and down and down with no obvious explanation.

Rubbing salt in hedge-fund wounds is the fact that Lehman Brothers was a prime broker to many hedge funds, holding their shares. While Lehman's bankruptcy was not a problem in the U.S., in England the policy is to freeze accounts until the mess can be sorted out. There are billions in assets locked in this bankruptcy, and hedge funds are forced to sell positions in the U.S. and elsewhere to raise cash, exacerbating the downside here.

By the way, when hedge funds are down for the year, they work practically for free until they make up the loss. We'll see hedge funds close and stocks liquidated as -- no surprise -- hedge-fund managers like to get paid.

- Margin calls: Whenever stocks go down sharply, you quickly find who owns them with debt. We have seen spectacular margin calls, a requirement for more capital to cover share losses. Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon unloaded 33 million shares to cover losses. Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone had a forced sale of $400 million in Viacom and CBS shares because of a margin call on other stocks. You can bet many not-so-public margin calls are behind many huge price drops. These usually take place in the last 30 minutes of trading.

So won't January be alright once these dislocations weighing on the market are lifted? The January effect is supposed to be positive.

Well, often money managers are fired at the end of disastrous years. A new manager comes in, looks at the existing positions and dumps them all and remakes the portfolio with new stocks that he likes, thus generating more selling. My favorite Wall Street adage suggests that the stock market trades to inflict the maximum amount of pain. Remember, you can only ignore the stock market for so long. Once everyone thinks it can only go down . . . it might go up.

Mr. Kessler, a former hedge-fund manager, is the author of "How We Got Here" (Collins, 2005).

Sorry, GG, I don’t get your intention. There have been MSM (mainstream media) reports on how investing is for suckers for generations. Was your intent to illustrate a contemporary example of this phenomenon, or to warn us that, this time, that idea may be true? If the former, I hear ya. It’s a tough environment but we’ll get through it, as always. If the latter, consider a career change. I honestly don’t mean to try in insult you, I just really don’t get that cut-n-paste job.

gg. Obviously this author has been able sell all of his clients asset when Dow peaked at 14000 and been short since giving his client a 45 percent return in the past year. And I m sure on feb 1st the market will bottom and start to move back to 14g. Did he also give u tomorrows lotto numbers?

Nothing better than getting advice from former hedge fund managers

This is a GREAT month.  Never moved money like this. 

[quote=conage]This is a GREAT month.  Never moved money like this. 

or fixed

[quote=Hank Moody] [quote=conage]This is a GREAT month.  Never moved money like this. 

I think there will be a lot of former hedge fund managers soon.

Iceco1d,

I would be VERY careful with the EIA’s. Not just for the coming regulation (I belive it is coming), but more for the fact that once you hand your client’s $ over to ABC insurance company, you better hope they stay in business. I know that’s true of FA’s, and VA’s in some instances.  However, I’ve seen a lot of EIA’s from small companies that JUST do EIAs.

[quote=conage][quote=Hank Moody] [quote=conage]This is a GREAT month.  Never moved money like this.