Cyclic Stocks vs. Growth Stocks

In the long run the economic performance of most countries is showing an upward trend. But, although this is true, the global economy and that of individual countries is always subjected to ups and downs.
Many sectors are especially exposed to these up and down swings.
Building and construction companies, automobile companies or steel manufacturers are all hanging on the economy like a marionette on strings. Large profits are taking turns with setbacks or even huge losses during a recession.
And the shares of these companies and sectors are substantially affected by the up and down swing of the economy. When profits increase in good times, more often than not, these stocks skyrocket disproportionately. But when profits decrease, investors let go of these stocks as if they carry the plague.
OK. You might say that this ain't a problem. You just buy cyclic stocks when prices are down and sell when prices are up. By low and sell high!
But unfortunately the economy isn't quite that reliable. Especially not the stock market. If it was that easy to make money with stocks, lottery companies would all go out of business in no time.
There are all kinds of factors that can get in your way like wars, a financial and currency crisis like we had in Russia and Asia in the 90's. Or oil prices are giving us a hard time again.
So you can't tell with absolute precision when your stocks have reached the bottom just like you can't accurately tell when your stocks are at their very peak before the market corrects again.
A nice example for cyclic stocks are General Motors and Ford. The stocks of these 2 companies have performed so badly in the past that they were downgraded to junk status by the rating company Standard & Poors.
The headlines at market watch.com read this:
GM, Ford debt cuts take toll on stocks.
S&P slashes automakers' credit ratings to junk status.
Shares of General Motors slid 5.9% while Ford shares fell 4.5% after Standard & Poor's cut its long- and short-term corporate credit ratings on GM and Ford to such a low level, that the word "junk status" was out faster than the 2 stocks fell that day.
Cyclic Stocks vs. Growth Stocks