The ridiculousness of "Holding" during a bear market.

Okay, so the stock market has been taking a massive dump. I've been watching this bear market unfold since Sept. 07' and luckily I've been mostly out of the market since then. In one year it's been nearly impossible to make any money (by conservative means, not gambling on individual stocks or shorting them). All indexes YTD show between -15%-20% performance. If you're one of the unfortunate ones that haven't gotten out of the market, be prepared for worse.
Here's why:

Global Economy - Euro indexes are in the dump, China and India economies are receding - The global economy is not tied to the United States

Domestically, we have our own inflation worries to deal with, mortgage/credit crisis, with more bad news on the way, the worst is not over yet.

I think it's ridiculous for these advisors telling people to hang on, to hold on to investments when we've clearly have at least 12-18 months for recovery.

Here's something that would make it more clear for you if you're not catching my drift... If you had a 100k invested in some index fund in Sep of 07, you'd probably have 80k left today. My guess is if you keep what you have left invested, in about 6-12 months, it'd be worth about 65k.

What is the pyschology behind holding on to losing investments?

"The Buy and Hold strategy suggests investing in high-value stocks or mutual funds and leaving them in place long term based on the assumption that, over time, the market increases in value. The investors who employ this strategy assume that since the market will increase in value over time, their investment will too."

What a crock... I'm not saying it won't work, but there's nothing worse than watching thousands of dollars go *poof* in a matter of days. Here, just let me open my wallet and hand you several hundred dollar bills.

Anyways, I leave you with that thought to chew on. I'll have more to add when I'm a bit fresher - about my experience with market timing and investing on momentum. It doesn't work for everyone, but has worked for me. I've been lucky to get in on the 90's .com market boom, then to get out before the crash. I was also lucky enough to get in during the 2k's real estate boom and then out before the crash. Luck? probably not. Skill? definitely not. Common sense? absolutely.