Yes, the Dow is dropping (at this moment down 761 points), but it has dropped before. One thing I know is that the stock market goes down. And goes up. You haven’t lost anything unless you sell. But, alas, the financial markets are not my specialty so I’m creating this open thread for those of you who would like to discuss this.
Here are a few stories explaining what’s happening today.
Dow plunges 800 points amid global sell-off
Panic engulfs global stock markets
Silverlining: Oil drops $6 to below $88 on demand concerns
Paulson picks interim head for rescue effort
UPDATE:
Johnnie Mc is LIVE in Albuquerque this afternoon and he is ROCKING! He has really sharpened his speech. He is on target and passionately confident. The crowd is riled and ANGRY, on his side and this is the best I have ever seen him. I am LOVING this. He is sharply diagramming Barry’s lies and BS. I hope he can keep this up for the next 29 days. Bullseye, John, bullseye. He is practically giddy, this is awesome. I am praying that all Independents are listening, really listening. I love his appeal to “my friends” (- as opposed to Barry’s condescending, sanctimonious, delusional, indignant, scornful scolding.)
As far as this thread, I tend to agree with Tammy. Markets go up and they go down. We are suffering the result of a over-bloated, falsely propped up, criminal and morally corrupt subprime housing bubble embarrassment. We were destined for a MAJOR correction. It will take a while, and we will all feel the pain, but just dig in your heels, keep your nose to the grindstone, make wise and conservative decisions and choices for the next several months, years, etc.
This is our great country. We just have to wrestle it back away from the political criminals who are trying to bleed it dry, starting with George Soros and his co-conspirators, and the scum that has risen to the top of the corporate world… it’s time for the cream to rise to the top.
Looks like the market recovered some towards the end of the day. But yeah, that bailout bill was just supercalifragilisticexpiallidocious, wasn’t it?
I’ve already heard they may need a lot more cash. Another giant step towards socialism.
I can’t believe this “quick fix, bipartisan BS bill” didn’t work. Shocked I tell ya! (NOT)
On another note: The kids singing for O will donate all proceeds from their Europe tour to the Heinz Foundation. O happy days…………
“You haven’t lost anything unless you sell.”
That’s exactly right. What they say about rollercoasters applies to the market: no one gets hurt unless they try to get off. In the long run, over the past 200 years, stocks have given a real inflation-adjusted annual return of 7%.
People whose 401(k)’s were in there expecting to retire in the next few years should’ve moved those assets into something less risky over the short term years ago. But people who DON’T need to sell anytime soon shouldn’t be panicking: they should be shopping for bargains. Keep in mind that the Crash of 1987, when the Dow lost 22% in a single day–its biggest one-day percentage loss ever–was also the best buying opportunity in its history.
Mutual funds, short-term CDs, T-Bills, those are safe places to store money, and low-risk.
I wouldn’t say all mutual funds are safe or low-risk in this environment, or any environment for that matter: funds vary so widely that it’s impossible to generalize. I’m sure the index fund that makes up the majority of my state retirement account has lost a lot today, but it’s also probably buying today. That’s dollar cost-averaging, and over a long period of buying stocks, it gets back to that annual 7% return.
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