Britannia Radio

One of the Greediest Things You Can Do as an Investor By Dan Ferris, editor, The 12% Letter Thursday, May 12, 2011 Last month, I touched the "third rail" of investment advisories. I said the one thing most investors can't bear to hear. I told them to hold a good chunk of their  portfolios in cash… to be patient on making new stock purchases… and to expect to make a  fortune with this idea. Some of my readers were furious that I refused to go where the "action" is… that I'm not swinging for the fences with risky stocks. For better or worse, most people have to have "action" in their investment portfolio. That's why most people lose in the stock market. They refuse to wait for "can't lose, no brainer" opportunities and values… and instead settle for "well, this might work out"  ideas. As I've been telling my readers, the market is full of "well, this might work out" ideas  right now. Today, the S&P 500 is selling for about 17 times trailing earnings. That doesn't seem  terribly overvalued. But it sure isn't cheap. The broad market doesn't offer much in the  way of dividends, either. The S&P yields less than 2%. Commodities have soared in the  past six months. Government bonds offer a tiny yield of 3.22%. They are a disaster waiting to happen… That's why I'm keeping plenty of "dry powder" and recommending others do the same in  the form of U.S. dollar cash and "real money" – gold. Holding a large chunk of cash when stocks are expensive is one of the greediest, most opportunistic things you can do as an investor. It's vital to making large returns  in stocks over the long run. You see, nothing keeps an investor's options open like holding cash. Right now, with stocks and bonds overvalued and commodities overdone, investors lack alternatives.  Cash alone gives you the option to buy anything, anytime. If you find a cheap stock and you have cash, the stock is as good as yours. If you have stocks and no cash, you'll have to borrow cash against your stocks (usually at high rates) to buy other  stocks. You might think cash's "optionality" is easily trumped by inflation. If you're talking about holding a dollar for 10 years and doing nothing with it, I agree. I'd never recommend you do such a thing. It's a horrible idea. But a good investor can handily  beat inflation over time… Sideways markets, such as the one I expect for the next several years, contain  multiple bottoms, where great bargains will be found. Using your cash during such  times will more than preserve your purchasing power. Take the most recent bottom, in early 2009. That April, I told my readers to buy semiconductor giant Intel… If Intel makes a little less money this year, it's not because it screwed up or lost  market share. It's because the entire global economy is depressed. Over time, the world will use more computers, more Intel chips, and the company's growth is virtually guaranteed. Intel's 2008 earnings per share came in at $0.92. If you value Intel like a World  Dominator, at 25-30 times earnings, the stock would be worth $23-$28 per share.  It trades for less than $16 today. Since then, my readers are up more than 50% on share price appreciation… and have collected nearly 10% in dividends. And Intel just raised its dividend payout this week. If you don't have cash ready, you'll never see that kind of return in a big, safe stock.  You won't be able to buy it. And the opportunity will pass you by. The problem is, most people have no patience, so they buy whatever sounds sexy at  the moment… and then suffer huge losses when their overvalued purchases fall in  price. The patient, greedy investor knows holding cash will allow him to take advantage of the bargains – like Intel – that will appear. The average loser doesn't see it this way, but successful investors see cash as "returns waiting to happen." Get greedy for those returns. Hold cash.