U.S. stock market meltdown

[BigBangkokTheory]

The U.S. stock market took a nosedive today, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 778 points (about 7%) and other major indices down sharply.

 

This was sparked when the U.S. Congress was unable to pass a financial resuce (read: bailout) package. Tomorrow is expected to be another down day in the market.

 

Some people who were not well diversified got seriouly spanked. The stocks of some major - and I mean MAJOR banks - have gone to less than $10 per share!! (and they were over $50 per share a year ago!).

 

I can tell you from experience in my profession, some people get emotionally attached to stocks and fail to diversify. Especially people with employer stock in their defined contribution pension schemes (i.e. 401ks). Life savings have been halved or quartered in the bat of an eye!! :Kissass: :Kissass:

 

And me? I am the "unleveraged" type. Right-side up in my mortgage and zero consumer debt. Saved my nickels during the good times while my fellow citizens went wild with their spending. I could take a three month trip to LOS and still have a healthy emergency fund when I got home. In fact, I AM GOING TO DO JUST THAT IF I LOSE MY JOB DURING THIS RECESSSION!! :Kissass:

 

On a serious note though, I am sorry this is negatively impacting the average bloke out there with a family to support, bills to pay, etc...

[Posankka]

The market goes up, the market goes down. Personally....and I'm about mid steam in my working life, my retirement fund is becoming more and more important....I'm willing to give up all of my retirement savings to make sure we get this thing right now, rather than just throw money at the problem.

 

So, cheers to the House of Representatives for having some balls for once and standing up for what is right.

Edited September 30, 2008 by Posankka

[dudebrah]

my investment is thai Bufalo is very secure

[azlizard]

Well done on your post, apart from the seriousness of course...

 

Wanna really get scared....read this.......our worlds economy is based on derivatives which are nothing but hand shakes/contracts and have ballooned from 100 Trillion to 530 Trillion in last 5 years....scary stuff

 

Derivatives are the nucular bomb of the economy

 

Let's just go to Patts and forget this stuff

Edited September 30, 2008 by azlizard

[Gobby]

scary shit.. i wonder whats going to happen to the us$ in thailand... exchange rate...lol...

[lostagain]

scary shit.. i wonder whats going to happen to the us$ in thailand... exchange rate...lol...

Strangly the dollar is stronger .... go figure.

The bailout was support by all the congresional leaders, whitehouse (but who listens to bushleage anyway), both presidental canidates and all the finacial experts from wall street that got us into this mess. Some of the congressmen that voted against stated that thier reason was because calls to thier offices were 10 to 1 against. Can you believe that they actually listened to the voters .... oh I fogot they are up for election next month.

[Pheromone]

The Dark Bailout! Funny Bush Parody!

 

Edited September 30, 2008 by SoCo MoFo

[ginseng]

I was so close to going short at the close Friday but figured hey it can't go much lower!

[Parkwahn]

The U.S. stock market took a nosedive today, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 778 points (about 7%) and other major indices down sharply.

 

This was sparked when the U.S. Congress was unable to pass a financial resuce (read: bailout) package. Tomorrow is expected to be another down day in the market.

 

Some people who were not well diversified got seriouly spanked. The stocks of some major - and I mean MAJOR banks - have gone to less than $10 per share!! (and they were over $50 per share a year ago!).

 

I can tell you from experience in my profession, some people get emotionally attached to stocks and fail to diversify. Especially people with employer stock in their defined contribution pension schemes (i.e. 401ks). Life savings have been halved or quartered in the bat of an eye!!

 

And me? I am the "unleveraged" type. Right-side up in my mortgage and zero consumer debt. Saved my nickels during the good times while my fellow citizens went wild with their spending. I could take a three month trip to LOS and still have a healthy emergency fund when I got home. In fact, I AM GOING TO DO JUST THAT IF I LOSE MY JOB DURING THIS RECESSSION!!

 

On a serious note though, I am sorry this is negatively impacting the average bloke out there with a family to support, bills to pay, etc...

 

 

It has been cominhg for 4 years, I am in a very strong situation as you are 4 years ago my business owed $600k, its an asset based business I reduced the debt to

less than $60k.

 

If the income halved I would be fine, the thing is in the boom time money and assets were easy to grow just look to reduce your debts when you see the storm coming.

 

I feel sorry for some of the guys who took debt at te wrong time, but the guys who thought it would run for ever need to take a sharp intake.

 

That said I think the market will be 20% higher next year.

[cinnamon kid]

It has been cominhg for 4 years, I am in a very strong situation as you are 4 years ago my business owed $600k, its an asset based business I reduced the debt to

less than $60k.

 

If the income halved I would be fine, the thing is in the boom time money and assets were easy to grow just look to reduce your debts when you see the storm coming.

 

I feel sorry for some of the guys who took debt at te wrong time, but the guys who thought it would run for ever need to take a sharp intake.

 

That said I think the market will be 20% higher next year.

parkwahn i hope your right but as money getstighter i think the pound will fall against the dollar in the short term as interest rates will probale come down soon.

[Pheromone]

thw market will not be 20% higher next year... this is only the begining....

 

It starts with mortgages, then moves to banking, the investment firms, the insurances firms, the credit card companies, the automotive, the airlines... this isn't even close to being done.... just watch....

Edited September 30, 2008 by SoCo MoFo

[alan1946]

I still can't understand why you have a strong $ and UK has a week £.

[Pheromone]

I still can't understand why you have a strong $ and UK has a week £.

 

 

the dollar is horribly weak around the world right now. If the UK pound is dropping, then that's a reflection on their economy as well....

[bathbus11]

so be it. i know that my plan to retire at 45 is now prob gona be extended to 47.

[hedonist]

I still can't understand why you have a strong $ and UK has a week £.

The reason is that the $ tanked about 2 years ago, and is only now begining to "twitch" again, giving it a false impression of strongness

The £ is slowly going down the tubes now too

 

Hedonist

[17hrs2freedom]

save your $$$$ gents, its going to get worse before it gets better.

[cock bang]

if you took the time to mention you probably are a little worried. even though i have a lot longer to go before retirement and yes the market will probably rebound and re-gain, it does not really make up for all the money that's been lost and lives changed in the past 1+ years.

[kw59]

I'm watching closely for signs of strength, i'm expecting a countertrend rally soon.

 

Something to keep in mind here. The fear in the market during sept. was huge and we have

possibly scared alot of people out of their positions . Consider the season we are in, it's not unusual

to make a bottom here.

 

if everyone is seeing fear it could be close to time to buy.

 

The last bar on the right is the fear measured in september 08.

Compare that high to the other highs in 2002 and 1998.

BTW, if I can see this so do the pro's...now you see it.

 

Edited October 1, 2008 by kw59

[Malekith]

Lots of good info here. However, that doesn't mean I completely understand it. I get that a buyer's market will be coming down the road, but for which industries? Is it worthwhile to buy up some of these stocks from banks that have completely dropped? I'm lost on understanding financial markets since I never really studied it much...any friendly advice where to purchase for down the road, long term profit? Thanks!

[kw59]

Lots of good info here. However, that doesn't mean I completely understand it. I get that a buyer's market will be coming down the road, but for which industries? Is it worthwhile to buy up some of these stocks from banks that have completely dropped? I'm lost on understanding financial markets since I never really studied it much...any friendly advice where to purchase for down the road, long term profit? Thanks!

 

Hi Malekith, rather than give out my humble opinions I would suggest going to the newstand and pick up

a copy of Investors business daily, the weekend edition if you can get it.

 

If the paper isn't available then you can subscribe to their website WWW.investors.com and raed it there.

they have a free one month trial so that might be a good start.

 

good luck

[willynut]

WELL , lets see, I dont believe the dow will drop much below 10,000, maybe 2-3% at most, I have moved back into the market in a reasonably large way, perhaps i'll be wrong? who knows but at least i've got the balls to act upon my opinion.

I am an aussie and have moved into the market on wed and fri so time will tell, bhp and rio are at 12 month lows, so is hvn, took reasonable positions in bhp, hvn, sek, asx,

[brad117]

I'm sweating and hurting too. But that is the time they say... I'm dollar cost averaging and have had a long term plan, that plan has always been to begin tapping those investments in a period of 5-10 years from now. So, I should be o.k. then, but it sure hurts like hell now. The fear factor is huge. What is happening now makes the point of "LIVING WITHIN YOUR MEANS" so obvious.