[MRM]

Mutual funds have to stay within the style of investing that they advertise. They may move to more defensive holdings when times are tough, but they can't shift holdings quickly (they have too many shares to move quickly) and they can't change their investment mix beyond certain parameters. So no, mutual fund managers really can't move to safety and then regroup as you were wondering.

Almost no mutual fund beats the S&P 500 index after about 3-5 years. In my experience even professional mutual fund managers do not understand the market and they buy and sell to meet short term goals. You are better off putting your money in an S&P 500 index, a NASDQ index and a DOW ETF. I'm not aware of any true Dow indexes.

But now is certainly a better time to get into the market than last week. Where it goes from here, who knows.