Amazingly, investors have just shrugged off all of these price swings. More people called their mutual fund companies over the weekend to find out about opening an Individual Retirement Account before the tax-filing deadline than to ask about the health of their wealth. Ask your friends, neighbors and golfing buddies this weekend what they did. Odds are, most of them stayed the course. The main reason for this stability is that there just isn't a better place to put your money right now.
Interest rates are too low to act as a magnet for money in the stock market.
But this seismic activity does provide an opportunity to do a little dollars and cents soul-searching. If your portfolio has gotten technologically top-heavy, it may be a good time to move some money into the core industries. However, long-term investors can't afford not to own Internet companies. Whenever I need a dose of common sense about the stock market, I turn to Peter Lynch. The former manager of the Fidelity Magellan Mutual Fund has always been able to look beyond the hype to find the value of investing.