"The only people that lost out were the people who panicked and sold their shares ..."
Agree completely George. There is an ongoing study done in the US called the Dalbar study (look it up), where they look at the returns of an investment type over 20 year and compare it with what investors actually achieved. Back in about 2004 the average return over 20 years on share market was about 12% but the return investors achieved was only 4%. The Dalbar study looked at reason for the huge difference.
Essentially the reason the investors' returns were so much lower was because investors behaved badly. When the the share market was going gangbusters everyone was talking about it, greed kicked in and they bought. When it went down all the media was intimating it was the end of the world, fear kicked in, and they sold. The worst possible strategy. Cheers.
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