You surely have heard every one of these from your broker or financial planner. They have been good students, but poorly taught.

And they will break you unless you become a better student of the market than they are. Wall Street wants your money. They don’t want you to ever take it out of their clutches. Even if you don’t trade as long as you are invested they make money. Not a lot, maybe only 1%, but multiply that by millions of investors and before you know it that is a bunch of money.

Investors hear these refrains every day:

Do research
Buy and hold
Dollar cost average
Diversify
Buy a good stock and put it away.
You can’t afford to be out of the market
Never try to time the market
Your broker will watch your account
Rearrange your portfolio with age
the market always comes back

We are in the midst of a bear market that is going to last several years. Not one of these lies will save an investor’s portfolio. He will slowly but surely go broke.

Wall Street trained brokers are taught the above and actually come to believe them. Not more than 1% of brokers are allowed to protect clients money. During down (bear) markets customer money should be in cash in a money market account or a CD waiting for the market to turn up.

Brokers are taught that it is impossible to time the ups and downs of the market. Market timing is beautifully simple, but they don’t want to know how to do it even for their own accounts.

Many of my regular readers may remember I wrote last February that the top is in and to sell everything. Then in subsequent columns have cautioned not to buy anything. Both of those are true today.

It is my guess that not one in a hundred investors have been told to sell and go to cash. Financial “experts” continue to say buy “for the long haul”. How long is that? How many investors can watch their hard-earned savings disappear usually selling at the bottom. We are a long way from there.

Treasury Bills are now selling close to zero percent interest. Why? Because even the smart money does not want to buy. Very nimble day traders may be able to make a few bucks, but many of them are being sent to the cleaners. Don’t try this.

It is unfortunate that most mutual funds are required by their charter to be 90% invested at all times. As the stock market sinks into oblivion the fund manager must buy equities that are clearly junk. The only thing an investor can do with his 401K is to have all his funds transferred into the Money Market fund. At least he won’t continue to lose.

You must take charge. Do not be mesmerized by the Wall Street’s 10 melodies of failure.