Some of you asked about oil investing a couple of months ago. It is low. It can't go any lower. Right? It closed about $35 today, about 1/3 the price that it was last year.

Here is a typical ETF, symbol XLE, that follows the energy sector. I has been completely bloodied over the last few months. Look at the lower left ( after rotation ), and you can see that income has dropped like a stone starting this time last year. The better energy companies are in this ETF, and it is still down almost 30% this year.

I hope that you understand why I told you to RUN away from anyone telling you to invest in energy right now, short of a QUICK pop. Those quick in and out trades are not for most people. It isn't worth the risk.

Buy and hold does not work. It will turn into buy and turn your money into mold! Run away from any broker that says, "we are in it for the long term," or "you should average down and make a good position." They just want your money.

Please see second chart for KMI. This was a considered a safe, dividend paying stock in the energy sector. It is a pipeline operator that took a safe toll for moving gas and oil. I owned it and the smaller companies that were the original blocks to form it. The last time, I sold out at $37 and lost my ass, about - 14%. Now look at it. It is at $16. Buy and hold would have been a 63% loss!!! And that dividend which held up the value is gone. The chart says 13%, but it is basically zero now.

I'm not trying to scare you. I want you to understand that buying and holding in what used to be a safe, conventional investments, does not work. Mutual funds are loaded with these dogs. Their goal isn't to make you money. It is only to bring in more cash and to do better than the other funds. It is a not happy thought.

Even the dividend ETFs have a lot of energy stocks in them. Don't think that you are safe in these funds. Know what you are buying!!!

The attached chart is the #1 rated, dividend ETF, SCHD, run by Schwab.  Look what is in this puppy.