Market volatility is certainly a valid reason to stay out of investments. Just take a look at this: http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=^VIX+Interactive#chart1:

Market volatility is certainly a valid reason to stay out of investments. Just take a look at this: http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=^VIX+Interactive#chart1:symbol=^vix;range=my;indicator=volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=^VIX+Interactive#chart1:s... VIX is going down, but fear is not as low as it was in 2005. It's not exactly the time to be jumping in head first. For those interested in VIX: "VIX is the ticker symbol for the Chicago Board Options Exchange Market Volatility Index, a popular measure of the implied volatility of S&P 500 index options. Often referred to as the fear index or the fear gauge, it represents one measure of the market's expectation of stock market volatility over the next 30 day period. The VIX Index was introduced by Prof. Robert Whaley of Vanderbilt University in 1993." (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VIX http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VIX ) There are a wealth of reasons to be bearish with the market right now, not the least of which are: * Market instability over the past few years. * U.S. government warning public of poor economic outlook. * Banks having second half of mortgage crisis ("foreclosure crisis"). * USD, Euro, Yen fluctuations and "currency circus" going on internationally. * Economic crises internationally. * Continued political issues and terrorism threats on global scale.