10,000, We Hardly Knew Ye

By Roger Nusbaum | October 06, 2008 | 11:40 AM | 2 Comments

Art Cashin appeared on CNBC wearing a Dow 10,000 hat. I laughed so loudly I'm surprised I didn't wake up my wife (we are in Arizona and it was about 6am).

The velocity of bad news and fear is still accelerating. There is not enough food in Iceland (turns out that was a bit of an exaggeration), the European financial sector may have bigger problems than the US (this one may be true), the bailout plan addresses the wrong thing, money is not moving and just about every normal inter-market relationship is currently malfunctioning.

The work that needs to be done here is to comprehend how extreme all of this is, recognize the sheer fear being created and then detaching from it so that bad mistakes don't get made. It is times like these were some people take steps that make them billionaires while other take steps that permanently alter (in a negative way) their finances.

In the four years I have been posting content on the internet I have been preaching about having a plan for defensive action laid out ahead of time and then sticking to it, I make not claim on originality. If you have done this you are much better off even if it doesn't fell like it.

If you have done nothing and so have felt all 28% down YTD or all 33% from the peak what you do next could be crucial.

The S&P 500 ($SPX) is where it was in 1998. Decade long round trips to nowhere are not new. What happened after the other decade long round trips to nowhere? I'm not acting on the notion that a bottom is in but I am cognizant that fear is off the charts and the market is already down a lot.

dow 10k. that is classic. is dow 10k. that is classic. is cnbc going to have another big party if we get back over it again? if we get over it again that is Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 2008/10/06 - 11:57am » reply |