How "safe" is the stock market?

[°Leprechaun]

Is it prudent to invest in the stock market,
or is it better to invest more conservatively?

Overall, long term, the markets have been going up since
the crash of 1929; after that crash it took a long time
for the markets to recover, but once they did it seems like
bear markets haven't lasted for more than a few years.

Whether or not investing in the stock market is a good
idea depends on how the economy is doing overall.

I don't know much about economics, so I don't know how
risky the stock market is.

A lot of people seem to think that investing in moderate
or conservative stocks is a good idea, but there are also some doomers.


When I look at the djia, it seems to be relatively conservative
compared to the nasdaq and s&p 500. I check my 401K often and it has
done well over the last two years, but how long will that continue?
Could we see a bear market in October or after the election?

[lfromnj]

One thing to note is that recent returns are relatively inflated to the past on paper because dividends are very small now. You would have recovered from the peak of 1929 by 1936 by reinvesting dividends .

[Torie]

If Trump is elected, I don't think the stock market will do well, particularly since the S and P 500 has done so well for so long, so it is not cheap.