[midas]

JV-

1. There is no such thing as a fund that can withstand all market conditions - all funds are situational - equity, bonds, income - the balanced funds are mostly for people approaching retirement.

2. Avoid all but the basic books on the stock market - they're all crap and so are most fund managers. If they could regularly beat the S&P 500 - they'd be on the front page of Barrons every month or they'd make ten times more money running a hedge fund.

3. There is only one theory that I believe when it comes to the stock market - "Over the long-term stocks out-perform every other investment". With that said, buy the S&P 500 (SPY) for large cap exposure and the S&P 400 (MDY) for mid cap exposure. Buy as much as you can every month (dollar cost averaging) and don't worry about the market anymore or spend any more time thinking about stock investments.