Dow below 9,000

7500.

this is crazy but at the same time for some reason, I'm excited

But Nouriel Roubini, who's had a deadly amount of accuracy regarding not only this recession, but others as well, has put the bottom at ~6,500. Who knows. It's a tough time, what can you say.

everything is a guess
throw out a number and you'll be correct for at least a day :D

0

jesus...

buy and hold is a suckers game. So much for for "fundamental analysis". Prop traders rule the earth!

yea and tons of them just blew up in the last 2 hours. fundamental analysis? the fundamentals are broken, thats the whole point

That the market reached its all-time high.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

America down 42%...who wouldve thought....

yes there has clearly been a breakdown of fundamentals across the board. I am a technical/psychological in my approach to the markets (aka what your finance101 prof said is impossible) hence my laughing at the fundamentals. But clearly the short term prop traders at totally reaping the benefit of this collapse. Whats better than making money? Making money when everyone else is losing their shirt!

6500

I feel like fundamentals are gone or at least being completely ignored. People are selling on fear and fear alone. Will people realize that a lot of these companies have been killed by fear and are fundamentally undervalued?

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Agreed, fundementals are being ignored entirely. Take a company like Verizon for example. It's being beat to a pulp with the rest of the market and yet earnings continue to come in strong; Q3 should be no exception. I don't know anyone who is canceling their phones or cable...if anything, just the opposite with the expansion of FIOS. I for one consider cell phones and cable more of a staple than discretionary spending. Currently yielding over 7% and they just raised the divident last month in the midst of all the mahem. There's countless others with insanely high yields and consistent earnings. At some point, even the energy/oil companies will have to appeal to someone. So much opportunity for long-term investing. Just remember that at this point, invest for the long run; it's not worth trying to call a bottom.

The breakdown in fundamentals is obvious however you have to be careful in both your stock picking and also in timing. Those people that bought stocks that were down 20% and thought they were getting a bargain are now down 20% from when they bought and see the market in pure state of panic. Naturally the comforting thing to do is to get out. The problem with long term investing is that many people do not have the stomach to withstand the bad times. Often they will end up selling at the bottom because they succumb to the capitulation. If you dont have the common sense to ring the register when you have a gain, or to protect your gains using a trailing stop and in general have no exit plan at all I think you deserve to lose. Those who were smart and got out at near the top, and went into cash now will be the next kings because they have the cash to put to work when everyone else is scared.

Trading is so easy people make it so much more complicated than it has to be. Buy low sell high is really all there is too it. You are not obligated to be 100% invested at all times, in fact there are many times when the safest thing is to be not invested at all and waiting for better opportunities.

May the prop traders rule the scorched earth.

From a day-trading standpoint, I agree. However, for the average investor looking for a place to put their money and get a decent yearly return over the next 10+ years, starting to build positions in solid companies now and building onto them as we drop further isn't such a bad idea. A strong stomach is a must though as we clearly haven't seen the worst of this market. Just my 2 cents.

Asia down 7-10%
doesnt bode well for the USA

Yea, its really bad and its global. It doesn't seem to be slowing which is very scary. Seems as though we have broken through the normal levels of resistance and it is now in freefall mode. The bottom won't come until prices drop to levels where people begin to believe stocks are fundamentally undervalued and begin to buy again.

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on the flip side the carnage will be over when the sellers are done selling. When everyone has sold that needs to sell has sold the market can only go up. I just think this market is more a function of the sellers finishing what they need to do than it is having the buyers there to bid this market up. None the less I agree with you.