Prudent Men Shouldn't Try to Time the Market

A googling of "Earl S. MacNeill," (see below) revealed this July 1951 item from Time.

New York State last year passed the "prudent man" rule. It allows trustees to buy common stocks, up to 35% of the trust's value, which a prudent man might buy for his own investment. Last week Irving Trust Co. Vice President Earl S. MacNeill reported that of $350 to $400 million eligible for such purchases in New York, trustees had invested not much more than half in common stocks. Reason: trustees think that stock prices are too high, are waiting to buy when they drop.

Not even prudent, professional corporate fiduciaries can time the market, it seems, As the chart below shows, buying stocks in 1951 would have been a cool move. But the Great Depression had cast a long shadow over equities.