As I glance over at my box of drafts for this blog, I see about a half-dozen unfinished pieces on stocks, market timing, and personal finance. Why? Well, to be honest, it’s been hard to write about anything finance related for the past few months, with the way the market has been behaving. My introduction to the market began January 2007, which in retrospect was a pretty good time. The market took some dips in March and July, but it was still easy to make money until the end of the year.

The beginning of this year wasn’t bad either, and I was up 8% in my personal portfolio while the indexes were down 5%. My shared online portfolio was doing good as well, due to a well-timed (at that point, at least) purchase of Crocs (CROX).

And then everything started to unravel. My big energy winners in my personal portfolio, such as Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF), began to lose their steam. My online portfolio got slaughtered when Crocs dropped 45% in one day. Then the turmoil in the financial sector managed to snuff out any growth stocks which began to reach new highs.

I am now 85% cash in my personal portfolio and 100% in my online portfolio. Year to date, I’m still beating the indexes, but not by much. I have market timing to thank for that though, which showed clear indicators to begin moving into cash 6 months ago. I can’t help but feel bad for people who are looking at less money in their accounts now than they did in early 1999. I am thankful that we don’t have large amounts invested in the market at this point, and that we don’t need any of the money that we do have invested anytime soon.

At the investment company I work for, most of our subscribers are unfortunately not in the same situation. However, our flagship publication has been, on average, 70% cash since April or so, helping to alleviate losses. It is awfully quiet here though. Sometimes, when the market is in turmoil, our phones ring off the hook and emails pile up. Other times, like now, people seem to rather avoid having anything at all to do with the market – much like I am now.

I still read financial news, and follow along with a few dozen stocks, but I don’t spend nearly as much time researching individual stocks. I became frustrated over the past few months when I would find a storng looking stock that would be slaughtered only a week or two later due to this incredibly unstable market condition.

So for now, I’ll sit by patiently, watching and waiting for the right moment to jump back in.