I’m beginning to fund my Roth for 2009. However, with the volitity in the market the way it is, I’m unsure if I should try to time my buy ins. Does anyone have any insight about this? I’m a very passive trader/investor.
I wouldn’t worry too much about timing the Roth. A Roth is for retirement and that’s likely a long ways away for you. If you believe the Hussman Funds commentaries (I like them a lot), market valuations have come down enough that long term investors are likely to see good returns over the next decade or two. It is still possible that things will go down from here, but the time it will take to make that up will be substantially less than if you had invested earlier. You could try entering in steps over time to reduce the possibility of getting completely caught in a downdraft.
What are you looking to buy into?
DJP - DJ Commodities VTI - Total Stock Mrk VEU - Total Int Mrk VNQ - REITs
If you have commissions to worry about, they can eat up the bulk of benefits you’d get from DCA or good timing. I’d agree that for long term investors, prices look pretty good right now. They could go down a little futher, or sideways for a while, but unless you were up big in 2008, you have to doubt your own ability to time the market.