Dry Powder

Categories: Investing, Stocks, Bonds

You, professional portfolio manager...you did it right. You felt the market peaking in September; you trimmed and trimmed and trimmed aggressively. You were half cash and the rest muni bonds when the shizzel hit the fan and the market cratered-down 35% in just four months. You started investing, put 10% of your portfolio's cash to work, then another and then another. The market fell another 8%...down 43% from its peak. You kept investing because you had dry powder to do so.

"Dry powder"=cash. The term comes from pirates (believe it or not) who would often fake the gullible British ships into using all of their gunpowder, having nothing left when the pirate ships drew near. The pirates could then pepper holes in the Brits with impunity until they surrendered or sank.

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