quote:

Originally posted by cdr:
Stop worrying, the government fixed it all today.

Corporate welfare for sure.

We have the BIGGEST financial meltdown in my life, and our government wants to fix it in the same week.

How oh how did we get here?

I do not have the answer, but this Socialism is not the darn answer.

quote:

Originally posted by Sacred Cow:
BTW, don't forget that investors used to be able to buy stocks at BELOW book value. What is the price to book today on average?

Man, I really hope it does not get that bad. But just a frame of reference for you youngsters since stock prices tend to regress to the long term mean, not the mean of the last 30 years.

Moo

The stock I referenced above is trading at 50% of book and they don't hold real estate or mortgages

The statesman who should attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to emply their capitals, would not only load himself with a most unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could safely be trusted to no council and senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it."
-Adam Smith

"We were the first to assert that the more complicated the forms assumed by civilization, the more restricted the freedom of the individual must become." -Benito Mussolini

"What has always made the state a hell on earth has been precisely that man has tried to make it his heaven." -F. Hölderin

quote:

Originally posted by Sandy Fitzgerald:
I'm still saying, we we see 10K on the DJIA, grap your shorts!

Well, I hope you're happy now. You just had to be right, didn't you!?!

I will be buying tomorrow. Blue Chips. They'll be the first to come back. Maybe MSFT.

I'm going to wait a bit longer and let the convulsions end. I will definietely buy on the way up when the emotions have calmed, whenever that will be.

I will also be waiting due to the ripples this has caused. Can't name one market that did well on Monday.

Trying to call a bottom could be very expensive in this environment.

Just buy SDS, DXD and GLD

Please make it stop. So much for retiring at 50.

quote:

Originally posted by steve8:
Please make it stop. So much for retiring at 50.

Simply brutal.

I feel for any who were going to need their money out of the market the next 5 or so years.

My parents are both in their 70's and they just got hired to take department store jobs for the holidays rather than go the retirement home in mexico they built to rent out 9 months a year yet stay there for three months during the winter months.

I have been buying like there is no tommorow (this may be true) I need to be selling myself/blood in order to fill my desire for some of these stocks at insanely low prices!

Insanely low prices? ROTFLMAO!

OK, I'm sure there are some. If you compare what they sold at a year or three ago. Now, compare dividend yield, P/B, or P/E to oh, let's say the early 70's and tell me you still think they are insanely low today.

No, I am not predicting that. But the insane valuations of the last 20-30 years do not make today's prices "values." Unless you no longer have a long term memory.

Moo

Steve8,

Have faith. You have what, 15 - 20 years until you're 50?

If anyone has cash and a time horizon of 9-12 months, buying stocks now or in the next few weeks is not a bad idea. There are a lot of cash sitting on the sidelines. Non-financial companies are pretty well capitalized. Recessions are typically what -- 12 to 24 months in length. Stock markets are generally 6-9 months ahead of the economy. People will continue to get married, make babies, and spend.

Double D,

Are you typing with a bong in one hand?

quote:

Originally posted by cdr:
Double D,

Are you typing with a bong in one hand?

Being from Berkeley and with some of your posts, I ask myself the same question about you.

quote:

Originally posted by Sacred Cow:
OK, I'm sure there are some. If you compare what they sold at a year or three ago. Now, compare dividend yield, P/B, or P/E to oh, let's say the early 70's and tell me you still think they are insanely low today.

No, I am not predicting that. But the insane valuations of the last 20-30 years do not make today's prices "values." Unless you no longer have a long term memory.
Moo

Agree, and add that financials then weren't being supported by the 'creative' accounting practices more common now. Clearly, the market's been over valued for a long time now. This has been a long time in coming.

Comparing valuations to an economy 30-40 years ago is fruitless. 401Ks and IRAs didn't start taking off until companies began phasing out their pension plans in the early '80s. Where do you think people will invest their money for retirement? Put it in a mattress for the next 20 years? You also have a more wealthy global community and markets are lot more fluid today. In the mid-70's, you still had the Soviet Union and a number economies that didn't exist or were just literally emerging. That's why valuations are higher today than they were 30 years ago.

DoubleD,

Good one.

I actually plan to wade in on the way back up, but I believe, as do some smart people whom I trust, that we are in a bear phase for a while with swings throughout. Remember, it's not what you make that matters, it's what you keep.

Again, I pray that lessons have been learned, but based on the past and where we are again now, I do not think that will happen.

No doubt. This time it's different.

Moo

A respectable post, DoubleD, but PE ratios are basic and the fact that they've skyrocketed compared to 'acceptable' limits from the past is largely due to so much money chasing these stocks and the acceptance of risk increasing accordingly.

The premise of BASIC VALUE, IMO, hasn't changed. Only the tolerance for risk.

Thus, a textbook bubble.

Earnings will tell the most important story in my view. The next couple of quarters will be very, very interesting.