Market Timing Now Advocated?

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article about how a well-respected investment professional, Peter Bernstein, is suggesting that the long-standing philosophy of investing for the long-term may no longer be the wisest investment course to follow in today’s market: “Bernstein’s Shocking Words:Market Timing: Prominent Investment Strategist Hints It’s, Ahem, Time to ‘Time.'” (Subscription required.) The article quotes Allan Bufferd, treasurer for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as saying that before the bursting of the technology-stock bubble, “you could just about lock and load a portfolio and go home and go to sleep” but that after the stock market’s implosion “we found out in a variety of ways that much more flexibility was necessary.”