During the 1990s, individual investors were steadily increasing the proportion of their retirement fund contributions to stocks over bonds, meaning that the portion of their new investments that was allocated to stocks was rising. Part of the reasoning seemed to be that they had made so much money in recent years that even if the market fell, they would only lose those newer gains. Of course, the fact that some of your money has been made recently should not diminish the sense of loss if that money goes up in smoke. The same thinking pervaded the views of speculative investors in the boom
...more