Return of the Investor

I recently posted on our facebook page in regard to this story, but I also noticed an article in Investment News. 

Before January of 2013, April of 2011 was the last month that investors, as a group, invested money into stock mutual funds, versus taking money out.  At the time of this article, investors had invested a net $23.6 Billion in stock funds as of 1/16.  January did finish as a net positive for fund inflows.  From March of 2009, until the end of 2012, investors took an astounding $400 Billion net from stock funds.  While some of this was probably due to economic reasons (unemployment was very high and something has to pay the bills), another reason was simply fear and uncertainty.  According to Investment News, the return on the S&P 500 over that same time was more than 100%.  Unfortunately investors that bailed on the market missed out on that return.