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    I’m stuck out of the market

    Sold a few weeks ago at the bottom as I wanted to prevent a bigger loss of my portfolio.

    My home (in the Middle East) is also being affected by the Iran US war so I was worried about both tanking and me needing cash to rent elsewhere.

    Now of course as soon as I'd sold it's immediately started going back up.

    I'd like to get back in but don't want to buy back higher just for it to crash worse – that'd be the worst situation lol.

    I know I'm stupid ok, no need to tell me that. But what would you do now?

    Edit: first time posting on this sub and wow lots of you are kind of jerks lol. No need for all the sarcastic rude comments. Appreciate the helpful comments

    I’m stuck out of the market
    byu/StraightPin4420 instocks



    Posted by StraightPin4420

    45 Comments

    1. azure275 on

      So you lost money timing the market, not even that much depending on what you’re invested in (5-9% of most indices), and your solution is to time the market again?

      I guess people don’t learn from experience

    5. unverified-email1 on

      If I were you I’d buy high and then sell low again, and then after that make another post on how the market is rigged.

    6. WeirdProcess6178 on

      Get back in with ETFs at 75% and 25% stock picking. The higher your tolerance grows the more you can raise the stock share.
      Don’t know what you sold but there are etfs for everything so just search a bit the ones that best fit you
      Good luck

    8. CurvedTVGreen8788 on

      You forgot the prime directive.

      Ignore the market and DCA into an Index fund.

    9. Keletas on

      You’re not stupid and 99% of the assholes here mocking you were just shitting their pants 2 weeks ago, wondering what would happen. Now it’s easy to pretend everyone knew the market would rip with all the nonsense going on. Nobody knew. Nobody knows what’s best to do now either. But yes you’re right, most of the people here are jerks.

    12. Odd-Block-2998 on

      Same here. Got assigned 900 shares of QQQ from $620P 2 weeks ago, sold all of them around $575 after the first bounce. Lmao. Immediate $40k losses.

    13. purplebrown_updown on

      Biggest mistake I’ve made in the past is to panic sell. Just buy back in.

    14. Motor-Region-1011 on

      Dont worry i bought 100k woth today. Market guaranteed tabking this week. You will get chance to get back in.

    15. Freezingblade491 on

      Time in market > timing market. Also missing the few best days in the market causes a major drag on return

    17. ForceGoat on

      Buy back in. You really don’t have too many options. You have 0 good options. If you keep waiting, you might need to buy back in at all time highs.

      I think it’ll drop back down 5% in the next few weeks. But the risk is that it goes up another 10% until the end of the year. If you don’t buy now at $7000, you need to promise yourself you’ll buy at $7700. If you’re not willing to do that, just buy now and eat the loss. The market has a way of making your decisions harder, not easier.

    18. niplah on

      Keep the money you need for an emergency fund out of the market to cover your uncertain situation. Only reinvest the money you will not need for a long time (years) in a low cost index fund then do not look at it or touch it until things calm down

    19. Morning6655 on

      I made the same mistake during tariff saga last year. Sold at the bottom and did not get back until SPX was over 6500.

      I am not a new investor. I held in 2008/09, 2018, 2020 and 2022 without making any changes. Why did I act differently in 2025? I started reading/watching too many doom and gloom scenario’s in the news/reddit that the shelves will be empty in couple of months and we are heading towards a great depression. During earlier crashes, I was not on reddit as much or watching the doom and gloom. Learned my lesson that every time it feels like this time is different.

      The doom and gloom is same this time around and I just ignore it. Just set your portfolio to your risk tolerance and let it ride. I will just buy back lumpsum or DCA and just let this be learning lesson.

    20. brutalpancake on

      You carry a very different type of risk here than most. Just wait till the war is over imo. The market will continue to go higher and lower over time like it always has. Forget whatever price you paid for anything. There will always be opportunities. Just avoid emotional decisions for now.

    21. CraftZ49 on

      You lose $0 if you don’t sell.

      That being said, if you have money in the market that you can’t afford to lose in an emergency, it shouldn’t be in there anyway.

    22. amull95 on

      I would hold cash as a safety net. It’s ok to lose a small percentage of gains for a peace of mind my brother. Be safe

    25. Kwikstep on

      Gotta sharpen those diamond hands bud. As painful as it is to hold on the way down, its exhilarating to watch them soar on the bounce back.

    26. donghwi on

      1. Don’t invest (possible) emergency or living expenses in equity.
      2. Don’t try to time the market.

    27. AdamGSMA on

      If you learned from your mistake and how to be a smarter investor, then you gained knowledge from your experience.

    28. Cool_Giraffe6495 on

      Well, first I hope your home in okay.

      I know some buildings have been hit hard (e.g. Lebanon, Isreal, etc.), other locations have had some minor damage (e.g. Gulf states). People don’t understand that many insurance companies don’t consider war as part of the coverage. People should not be mean to you.

      Anyways, next you into similar situation, you should always follow your strategy that you’ve set forth. Your strategy should income % in bonds or short-term investments. if you ever need the money, and the market tanks, you would then use funds from your bonds %.

      You are now finding out that is very hard to get back into the market after selling. If you are now 100% in cash, then start fresh an consider allocating % in stocks and % in bonds (e.g. T-bills). I can’t tell you what the future market will look like. No one can.

    29. PhysInstrumentalist on

      If we dont breakout past the ath, youre probably going to get a saving grace to buy back in at better prices, but take that opportunity the moment you get it

      I have no idea when this pump is going to end, but I sure as hell know its not going to last forever

    30. setzer on

      Just going to say the market did a full bounce back just before the tariff drop too. Initially went down 6%, rallied back to the highs, then went 22% down. So who knows.

    31. spectralRipples on

      Been there, it is a lesson but you just need to move on. If I were you I would put my emergency fund aside and then DCA the rest over the upcoming few months. Best of luck!

    32. funguy6019 on

      I would trade the trade the downside at this point if possible. Don’t chase this move up and good luck with your house situation

    33. LeftPresent4646 on

      Look, if you can’t afford another market crash then that means you shouldn’t get back on the market, because it can go down again.

    34. Singularity-42 on

      Ease back into it slowly and not with everything. Think really hard about how much money you need on hand and keep a good bit more than that.

      I can almost guarantee you that we will see better prices than today in the next few weeks. Almost. We are literally at all time highs again today. This is Kangaroo market. Up and down, up and down. Today we’re up.

    37. New2reddit456 on

      Please ignore all the rude comments, but yes you have to be able to let the money sit for 3 years if investing it. If you need the cash or will need it soon, do not invest. Start again when you are comfortable with the time horizon of 3 years

    38. nzaar on

      The rule is to always buy, gradually, and regardless. Try that.

      Divide your cash up into 52 equal pieces. Invest 1 piece every week into the market (SPY is a good reflection of the overall market). Keep doing that all year. Whether the price is up that week or down, keep doing it.

      When you have extra cash, double the amount on red days. Resist the urge to go “all in” because someone said the next week is gonna be awesome. Resist YOLO. The struggle is real.

      I guarantee you will grow your wealth.

    42. CarbonGTI_Mk7 on

      Fomo. As soon as you get in there’s going to be news about no more ceasefire 😆 🤣

    43. catfromgarfield on

      If you reinvest into something safer let’s say 5% annual return, then you’re only 3% away from the 8% annual average of the sp500. Which could be a big difference compounding over time. But that’s what I’m choosing to do, because I’m in a similar position. And hopefully I will get lucky and the next downturn will happen sooner than later and I can get back in

    44. googoogaga369 on

      You live in a warzone while most of us here are prob mega chilling in a relatively safer city. Your liquidity needs far outweigh most of us, making “just DCA bro” a not so cut and dry answer imo. Hold your money, enough for the worst case scenario and a little bit of extra on top of it to be extra certain. Survival and housing shuld probably be ur #1 priority atm, not getting a few extra bucks out of being in VOO a little earlier.

      Then again, I type this in an air-conditioned room, so take this advice from a place of privilege with a pinch of salt.

    45. JohnnySpot2000 on

      Most people, in hindsight, say “I should have bought when the market dropped to ‘X’ “. But they forget that when dropping to ‘X’ was actually happening, times were scary and they were afraid to buy.

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