I'm letting 'the professionals' handle my big account at metlife. What a mistake. I manage my own little account at scottrade and my mother's IRA and both of those are outperforming the metlife account, and those guys charge me out the @$$. Needless to say all three are in the red, but the ones I manage are less in the red.
Which is funny because my accounts are 100% in equities usually and the metlife account is 60% 40% stocks/bonds & such. So they are theoretically taking on less risk but what do ya know, last i checked it was down 6 - 8%. =(
I'm bearish on the economy here, whatya know a Ron Paul supporter bearish on the state of the union? - and have purchased a lot of silver lately just to toot my own horn here outside of these accounts. =) Mining stocks at the moment are the bargain of the century is you ask me! Look for explorers that have been beaten down ridiculously but also are producers. That way they have a stream of capital from the producing mine(unknown to the market or the market just doesn't care) so they can fund the explorations without borrowing from the banks and being exposed to the 'credit crunch'.