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Let me preface by saying I know very little about investing, so I'm looking for help. Currently I have all my savings in various big long-term growth mutual funds, a mix of small-large cap, foreign & US, etc. but it's all stock because I'm young.

My question is - if I want to get out of so much stock, is there anywhere else that I can put money for long term growth that will perform similarly to stocks, but not be on the same cycles?

More specifically, I believe that the US and perhaps many other countries are headed for a bad recession and I'd like to pull out a chunk; I know blah blah don't market time, I don't really want to discuss whether or not you think the US stock market is headed down the tubes - I'd just love to know if there are any alternatives.

One thing I've learned is that foreign stocks are no refuge; they seems to be very strongly tied to the US market, presumably partly because everything is so connected, but also because all the "emerging markets" countries make so much of their money exporting to the US so if the US consumer strength plummets the emerging markets will plummet. I'd like to get into some investments that aren't so directly correlated to the S&P for example.

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basically, what you're asking is:

is there an asset that will perform as well as stocks do in the long run while at the same time not do poorly when the business cycle turns down (i.e. low growth/ high or low inflation environments)

the only answer i can give you is leveraged bonds. when growth turns down into recession, rates are forced lower. equities may not recover for some time but bonds immediately rise in value. you need to lever them though to hit the risk target of equities.

most other asset classes (if not all) do not perform well when growth falls.

your other option, if you don't want bonds, is to simply withdraw a portion from the market and put that money in cash. it won't perform as well as stocks, but it will not decrease in value, which stocks would do if a recession popped up.

Barron