What does today's potential DOW Record Close means to YOU?

[ShortnFiery]

Poll question: What does today's potential DOW Record Close means to YOU?

[bryant69]

1. It will be interesting to see how this poll shakes out.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Hugin]

2. I'm thinking it looks just like Japan before it's big gutterball...

It shows otherwise hidden inflation... All that money is in the stock
market because it has less value.

[TacticalPeek]

3. Adjust it for inflation since January 2000 and I'll get back to you.

:)

[skids]

32. Precisely: "YAY!!! THE DOW LOST 15% to 30% IN FIVE YEARS!!!"

That's what it means to me. With the dollar in high flux, the numbers coming off the tickers are meaningless.

[Blue_In_AK]

4. Temporarily glad

because we have money in the stock market, but it's probably going to tank in the coming months, so I hope our broker knows what he's doing.

[AX10]

5. The Dow 30 is overvalued, as is the entire market.

For all of us invested in the markets, I hope we all have smart investors. Fidelity is one of the best ones out there.

If not, you are probably going to lose alot of money sometime next year.

[mtnester]

6. That my pension is now back to where it was 6 years ago

and maybe I can start opening the envelopes that come quarterly showing how much my mutual fund is worth without cringing...it might ALSO be back to where it was 6 years ago. It may also mean that my grandma can stop working her second job cause her pension is back to there it was 6 years ago.

Funny, took me 6 years to get BACK to where I was before Blivet illegally occupied the WH.

Go figure.

[mcscajun]

10. Funny, ain't it?

My IRA has just about recouped the losses of 2000-2001.

Ever feel like Alice, running twice as fast just to stay in the same place?

[mtnester]

18. All the time. Or that I live in alternate reality world. n/t

[ToeBot]

7. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, what else could it mean? out

[catnhatnh]

8. My best guess

is that all you're seeing is a pile of cash on the run from the real estate market...that particular baloon is bursting first.Stage 2 begins when the stock market cash bails into foreign currencies and precious metals...

[mcscajun]

9. My entire IRA is in the stock market, so I'm happy for now.

I could be miserable later, unless I make some sharp moves. They could spell the difference between maybe getting by in my ever-illusory "retirement", or having go throw myself on the charity of family. Ugh.

Rich I am NOT. Well-off I am NOT, but just maybe I'll get by. Maybe.

[Lost4words]

11. smoke and mirrors, hows GM and ford doing?

How is housing going? not too f*ing well.

I simply do not believe any government reports, and am not inclined to believe the nations top corporations.

8643

[ShortnFiery]

12. Interesting to me ...

No great contemplation went into my choice of poll responses although I tried to cover a decent range of reactions.

I find it hopeful that many of us can be entertained by the shallowness of the M$M Financial Journalists - That's one area where nobody worries about filtering that almighty "Glee for Greed" at the prospect of increased wealth.

Oh well, I observe from afar and worry not about that Camel having to pass through The Eye of a Needle, i.e., I'm not part of The USA's Investor Class. :P :hi:

[NewJeffCT]

13. Markets excited at possible Democratic congress?

Just like how they started downward in 2000 at the prospect of a Bush presidency...

[skipos]

14. That means for the last 5 years, it would be better to have

had your money is a savings account. It means to me that Bush is following the rule that DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTS ARE BETTER FOR THE ECONOMY AND BETTER FOR THE STOCK MARKET.

Forbes has some ratings of ecomonic properity that verify this.

"Not surprisingly, Bill Clinton tops the magazine's prosperity chart. He is followed by two other Democrats – Johnson and Kennedy. The first Republican to show up is Reagan, who comes in fourth. No Democrat finishes lower than seventh (Truman), and the last three spots are all occupied by Republicans (Nixon, Eisenhower and George H.W. Bush). On a scale of one to eleven (one being Bill Clinton, eleven being the elder Bush), Democrats have an average ranking of 3.8, Republicans of 7.8."

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=131769

That probably explains why democrats are better for the stock market too.

DOW SINCE 1901
Republican years Avg. annual change 6.9%
Democratic years Avg. annual change 13.3%
Source: Stock Trader's Almanac 2005

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/columnist/krantz/2005-12-02-presidents_x.htm

[Sammy Pepys]

16. Unless you bought at the top...

...and made no other investments, this is entirely false.

If you kept investing during those low market averages, you've realized a healthy gain that no savings account could touch.

[skipos]

28. "If you kept investing during those low market averages"

Yeah, that's what all the pundits were telling us to do as SUNW and co. went down the toilet, and that prove to be a really bad idea.

$1000 put into a mutual fund 5 years ago is, on average, worth about $1000 now, as the DJIA is, on averge, the same value it was 5 years ago. Many people did better, many people did worse, that's why it is callen an AVERAGE.

$1000 put into a savings acount 5 years ago, on average, would have been a better an investement. Though I haven't followed Kramer in a months, the last I looked at his portfolio on action alerts he was -2% over the last few years. He would have been better in a savings account.

[Sammy Pepys]

44. Like I said...

If you made a one-time investment into the type of mutual fund that closely follows an index, you're probably just breaking even now...or at least in the ballpark.

But if you bought at regular intervals during that entire five year period into the same kind of mutual fund through the ups and the downs, chances are you've probably seen a pretty decent gain...definitely greater than what a savings account would've yielded. It's all about dollar-cost averaging. Over the past five years, I've got a 14% annualized total return, with 2006 YTD running about 7% currently. The bulk of this is in run-of-the-mill, nothing special mutual funds.

$1000 into a savings account would be the safer investment, and if you're looking for safety then that is the better investment. But in terms of gains it would be blown out of the water, especially when you consider that interest rates on savings accounts were running in the 1-2% range for much of this five year period we're talking about. Only recently have those rates picked up.

Besides, if we're ranking investments based on their returns gold has blown everything out of the water until very recently.

[Sammy Pepys]

15. Interesting to me....

It will mean that the market avergae is certifiably above the levels I've made all of my investments at. This doesn't necessarily mean anything in terms of gains (though I do have a portfolio in the black, YTD and overall), but it's kind of an interesting benchmark.

[Schema Thing]

17. It means it's time to short the fiery market

:P

[ShortnFiery]

20. LOL,

Too cute :P. Little do you realize that The Stock Market and I have something in common:

According to one of our esteemed posters above, we're both certifiable. :crazy: <lame drum roll>

[MindPilot]

19. Not only does it mean less than nothing to me,

I don't even begin to understand it. I do have a few thousand in a 401k and money is taken out of my paycheck to buy company stock. But I have absolutely no control over it; it is what it is. A year of economics in college and this whole "market" is still a mystery.

On edit: That time spent in Econ 101 would have been better spent learning to spell and type. :D

[sweetheart]

21. profits are up for a few assholes

and the economic concentration is destructive of strategic diversity and value,
corrupting by hindsight of financial markets media, any realistic constitution
that existed before corporatism ate it. But its not wall street's fault per se,
everyone knows that stock markets and gambling are very similar, and designed to
be a form of legallized betting to take all the addicts and suck their will in
to a system they will defend to the death.

[Hugin]

22. I agree with you...

I think?

( :rofl: )

[ShortnFiery]

25. Don't encourage him Prag ...

Or else our highly intelligent bud, sweetheart, may begin to quote Shakespeare. <tease!>

I like reading sweetheart's financial analyses better because it doesn't make my brain HURT. :dunce: :hi:

[sweetheart]

33. set to it

Ok, with less lampoon, then. Commoditized financial markets where information is common have
no opportunity for profit. The financial industry innovates products that are NOT bog standard
like stocks, so that they can trade in a grey area where information is select and not common.
This has over years been futures, options, swaps, and now more esoteric credit derivatives. And
with these complex legal aggreements between 2 institutions, drafted by private lawyers, the
entire financial system has become opaque as private capital has eschewed the incompetence of
public markets (hint for democrats) who like public regulated markets.

So by drafting sarbanes oxley, the pukes have created an overly regulated market, and made all
public capital markets irrelevant at the same blow, no longer indicative of the dark-matter finance
that is vastly larger and unregulated entirely worldwide on a network of telephones, global
financial opinion and holdings inc.

One solution is to end corporate personhood, and with this change in status, corporate citizens
will cease to have the influence over the congress, and have themselves regulated by living
citizens who demand they behave.

Another solution is to make the federal reserve bank's open markets committee a publically elected
body, that the issuance of credit in the US be dictated by the public good.

Another solution is to form a "public bank of the USA" and bump the private federal reserve bank
from its incompetent monopoly.

When finance is too global, it does nobody a service. Capital is skiddish, and instruments of investment
are fungible, easily replaceable for a better rate of return, and this sort of moment to moment jumping
of dollars, deters serious investment, as the short term market cuts the legs out of any strategic
development.

So whilst they can bilk profits out of a petrol econoomy whilst spending trillions of taxpayer credit
on a lost war, the war economy is profiting its new war barons.

The problem really, is that the US has always had economic central planning at an intensive level, under
the auspices of cold war competition, capital markets were tighly watched as agents of directed development,
and now the laizze faire market nuts have lost track of how a huge economic boom is orchestrated,
not by profits in a mosh pit on wall street, but in a boom for every common joe and jane.

We've been seriously let down by the US financial industry. It is antiquated, and were competition
allowed, would be wiped out completely by more retail-friendly european banks that do not take
any time to clear funds. That, in this day and age, settlement is not yet instantaneious is a
sign of the endemic corruption that is hoorah finance, virtual futures pits of screaming bellowing
apes shouting out so they don't have to work for a living, and you have to wonder how many slaves
it takes per person to keep an entire city on spreadsheets and telephones; like a noble pit,
wall street takes our best, brightest and smartest graduates, and lashes them to a hegemonic
approach that bankrupts their capability, tied to the wars of stupid, and no matter any DOW peak,
there's no hiding the pool of blood.

[Hugin]

35. "no longer indicative of the dark-matter finance"...

Yes, I agree... Very nice analysis. In fact, it would make a
great thread on it's own.

Thanks.

[MindPilot]

23. That's fer sure!!

I never grokked this.

If I bet that GM will be worth more tomorrow that's called business and I make money.

If I bet on a horse to place at Santa Anita that's called sport and I make money.

If I bet on the Broncos by 6 at Joe's Bar, that's called gambling and I get arrested.

[newportdadde]

24. Adjust it for inflation and dollar value decline since 2000.

Its been overall going off just the index a piss poor investment. Now if you were selective and had oil stocks(I have some) you have done okay.

[trof]

26. BOW WOW WOW, DOW DOW DOW!

RAH! RAH! RAH!
SIS BOOM BAH!
YEEAAAAAAAAA DOW!

Brought to you by the MSM Spirit Team.
yea

Just heard one CNN talking head say "We ALL have stocks in a 401-K or an IRA."
Well...maybe not quite ALL of us, asshole.
:grr:

[lonestarnot]

27. Other: The richey riches have invested heavily just to make it look

good for Nov., just like they've lowered gas prices. Just another sham.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

29. it means I should check the $ valuation against other

currencies and see if it really is a 'high.'

sP

[Crabby Appleton]

30. My 401k

has been looking a lot better the last few weeks. It is fairly diversified; small cap, foreign equity, company stock, S&P 500, contra fund, stable value, growth company.

[radfringe]

31. gonna last?

my paycheck going to look any different on friday? doubt it...

yeah, I have some small investments in 401k's.. glad that this may mean they may be worth what they were 6 years ago (pre-bush)

in the short term - means squat to my wallet

[Hand]

34. Less than nothing...

So a bunch of bipolar cokeheads with mediocre minds are pumping it up... watch this space for the next mood swing. :puke:

[Demeter]

36. Waiting for The Crash In October.....

It ought to be a doozy! That's where the bubble went, by the way.

[spoony]

37. The market seems to reward companies for bad behaviour

Chop your work force in half? Good news for Wall Street!
Dodge those pesky pension obligations? Buy buy!

So generally when they're happy I know that when I look at the front page of the Detroit papers I'm going to see a lot of people wondering how they're going to survive with their plants closing.

[RebelOne]

38. I'm very happy to see the DOW go up.

My 401K and IRA are in the stock market. Usually, I dread opening the statements because the balances have been going down.

[mmonk]

39. Better up than down.

I'm tired of the traditional republican sideways markets.

[onenote]

40. more money to donate to Democratic candidates

[ShortnFiery]

41. One little Democratic Kick

:dem:

[dkofos]

42. Price of gas down, stock market up

Must be election time

[zbdent]

43. maybe that the markets are reflecting

the changing of the guard - for the better?