Should I sell cash out my investments? Recession on the way?

I only know the basics about investment.

I go through an investment firm that has given me the "optimal portfolio for my risk tolerance" and yet I have lost about 15% of my investments in the last quater.

Now I here Greenspan say we're on the edge of a recession. Does it make sense to just ride this out? Or should I take that cash, wait til this recession is over and then reinvest? Or should I just change investment firms / risk tolerance levels?

Any experienced inverstors have advice for a new guy?

Perhaps you are right about getting out. But the way to get out is when your investments are up and not when they are down.

It's too late to get out, when your investments are down that much. You may as well wait it out and benefit from any stock market rally.

The stock market always goes up eventually. And all you need to do is wait long enough. Even the great stock market crash of 1929 didn't last forever.

Most economists, including myself, now believe that we are in a recession. A 15% loss in the last quarter is not considered bad; relative to the current market situation. DO NOT CASH OUT NOW. It will not get much worse (odds are it will start to slowly bottom out and increase again).

you have entered in the wrong time.
market is severely down and you are not expert.

See the stocks fundamentals - if the stock is fundamentally strong and having prospect of reasonable growth stay with the stock.
recession will disappear and stock market will revive. need not become nervous.

I like helping amateur investors and traders. Especially because you are bombarded with so much misguided information.

I started answering questions here on yahoo a week ago, because I like to bring clarity to the issues. I already have contributed two dozen Best Answers.

A lot of the same questions show up repeatedly. So I've compiled my answers on the following website:

http://commonsensetrading.googlepages.co...

You should visit it. It will help you make sense of what to do.

You already missed the opportunity to get out. The market its bottom when everybody panics. We saw that happen the other day with the huge drop. Now the panic is over and the government is finally acting. All aboard now. Market rally's happen fast furious. Most people that try to time it miss out.

I would just hold on to the investments you have, and when we hit the bottom, which hopefully will happen soon, start buying. These recessions are great times to make money, this is how many millionaires are made. I'd really keep my eye on the housing/mortgage stocks. Those have fallen quite hard, and when that market hits bottom and things start turning around, that will be a great time to buy.

www.girder.ca

Greenspan ought to know since he is the chief cause.
Hang in there. The new "experts" running the Fed will do what they can to mitigate the problem. Let's just hope they do not screw up so bad as Greenspan did by keeping interest rates at bargain basement levels for so long.

15% sounds a little unbalanced to me...but if you're quite young then maybe your investments are just high beta stocks. You will sleep better at night and have much more consistent returns decade after decade if you diversify your assets.

you need a balance of bonds, foreign stocks, emerging markets, reits, and american equities. stick to index funds and work with a solid company like vanguard.

If you cash out now you will no longer be risking your money. You will also be locking in a tremendous loss. You could wait to buy until the stocks are all really high again, then you will have taken a double loss. If you don't understand your investments, do not invest in them!

I'm waiting to see if Ben Bernanke keeps dropping the interest rates lower, which in turn will help feed the bubble.