Stock market woes

Kaushik

Anyone else watching their investments decline in value last few weeks, and debating what to do? My retirement fund lost 3% two weeks ago, 2% last week, and possibly lost another 3% this week. It's been a rollercoaster worldwide. Overall I've been watching the turmoil with bated breath and holding steady, but there are days when I think about moving everything into bonds until the storm subsides.And then I see that bond returns are going down too.

PATX

Housing and (taxpayer) Defence spending were the main things propping up the markets. There has been a surplus in building supplies since late last year and we all know how much cheap oil we didn't get out of Iraq. Major correction coming down the line.

jlee

dude, Cramer went batshit crazy last week. good points...but damn...chill doggy.

i still think we are another 2-3 months away from seeing how the sub-prime mortgage issue effects the market/economy. i am only now starting to hear stories of people actually losing their homes. Prior it was just stories that people would likely lose their shit. really sad shit.


my company (fcn) is fucking sky rocketing this year.

PATX

my company (fcn) is fucking sky rocketing this year.

Yay for you! But fundamentally, this country's economy is furked. Money has been flowing from the public sector to private at unimaginable rates for most of the Bush presidency and there is no way to stop it, even if Nato and the UN take over in Iraq.

Unless of course you think it will all trickle down to the working stiffs. Blackwater has been good at job creation I guess, but I hear their retirement package sucks.

sabadabada

Money has been flowing from the public sector to private at unimaginable rates

and this is bad because ... ?

Zeke

In the 80's this Harvard psychologist, Paul B. Andreassen, conducted an experiment with a group of MIT business students. He let every student pick a stock portfolio and then split the students into two groups. One group could only see the changes in the prices of their own stocks. The other was provided a lot of information regarding market trends, analyst speculation, etc. At the end of the study, to everybody's surprise, the students who were only provided their stock price changes did MUCH better than those who were provided with a wealth of information.

I think there may be some fundamental truth in the results of that study, especially because people NOW have the ability to pay close attention to the financial news and analysts who are, without a doubt, very smart, but involve themselves emotionally in affairs that are far outside their control and make statements and financial decisions in that emotional state of mind. Jim Cramer's outburst is a perfect example.

EDIT: I should add that I am a fan of the concept of the Kondratiev wave and believe that "a major correction" (as stated earlier) is coming, but that making rash decisions NOW based on analyst and talking head "chatter" seems like a poor decision making strategy.

PATX

Money has been flowing from the public sector to private at unimaginable rates

and this is bad because ... ?

because you smell.

PATX

Jim Cramer's outburst is a perfect example.

I think Cramer's outburst was more about what he can't say out loud than his beef with two crusty Reaganomics dudes at the Fed. I bet he talks to people every day who tell him that his audience - the little guy shmuck, is in for a big Enron. But he can't say shit. I always hated him though. I hate all those cable TV stockmarket dudes and dudettes who wish they were dudes.

rootlesscosmo

dudes, do people actually watch this clown?

he's always struck me as the Gene Simmons of financial advice.

Jonny_Paycheck

Paging Mylatency

jlee

dudes, do people actually watch this clown?

he's always struck me as the Gene Simmons of financial advice.

i used to be a big fan of Cramer. Kudlow & Cramer was my lick back in college. I can't really ride for the "scream real loud" shit of his new show, but beyond the "pick this stock" anecdotes of his show, he tends to give sensible economic/financial advice.

JimBeam

dudes, do people actually watch this clown?

he's always struck me as the Gene Simmons of financial advice.

dude is an absolute moron. it's complete wastes of air time like that which cause people in this country to completely misunderstand Bernanke and the Fed's role.

The_Hook_Up

Im afraid to log in and check mine...even though it is only a few grand as I had to start over as I had to cash it in when my shop closed a few years ago and went a year without working....but still, Im scurred....

DrWu

Rumor round the campfire is that there will several small rate cuts in Decemeber. Fundamentally, I wouldn't say the economy is in terrible short-term shape. The housing bubble has largely passed at this point. I suspect that rate cuts would stop any further slides. I think that your relationship to the stock market needs to be in relation to your goals. If you are in it for the long haul then you should sit tight.