DOW's going below 10,000....

[a kennedy]

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and I know, it doesn't matter really.....but it does to me....it just makes me feel better about the economy when it's going up.

:cry:

[Recursion]

1. DJIA going up = working people being robbed

Every dollar of corporate profits driving a stock price up is money that was taken from the employees, at least for the past 30 years or so (there's a way to be profitable without screwing workers, but we seem to have forgotten how to do it).

We'd all be a lot better off if the damn Average didn't exist, or at least if a lot fewer people paid attention to id.

[marmar]

3. I agree....but everywhere you turn on the tube....or the Internet.......

you're bombarded with that damn ticker, as if it serves any purpose except to illustrate how you're being fleeced.

[Speck Tater]

5. Exactly. DOW going up mean the rich are getting richer in the Wall Street casino.

It has little or nothing to do with the real economy any more. The market used to be a way of funding productive industry Now it's just a gambling casino.

[Recursion]

8. Right, even what I said is a little too rational for what's going on

Because people aren't even being rationally immorally capitalistic anymore.

[we can do it]

9. So What About Us Working People with 401ks? Don't We Count?

[Recursion]

14. 401(k): fund your retirement by depressing other people's wages

You count, it's just that you count against people who work for the corporations you're invested in.

[spanone]

36. what silly horseshit

[Recursion]

37. You think so?

You don't think the stock market leads to destructive short-term thinking by corporations?

[Greyhound]

46. To be blunt, your 401(k) is the ring in your nose to keep you chained to their game.

Why do you think they set it up the way they did? It's "your money" but they tell you where you may put it.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

11. Riiight.

That's why the big stock market collapse in '09 was so good for the American worker.

:crazy:

[Recursion]

13. So you assume "up = bad" implies "down = good"?

Interesting.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

20. I wouldn't use the word "assume."

Also, I'm not a believer in the idea that "down = good" and "up = bad" theory.

[Recursion]

22. Any large change that does not correspond to actual economic activity I consider bad

Because it's never good for the fairytale-land of wall street to influence actual business practices.

[louis-t]

2. It will average out around 10,500.

It will be back up next week.

[cbdo2007]

4. ouch, that's going to hurt....should have sold a few weeks ago :(

[Oceansaway]

6. my take....lots of day traders taking profits...nt

[JuniperLea]

7. Wall Street... OTB...

The ponies are looking like a better investment all the time! The ramifications for cheating are far more severe, and you can't hide a pony's real looks.

[SoCalDem]

10. A little history on the Dow

[The_Casual_Observer]

12. The 401k contributions that used to fuel the market aren't there anymore.

Unless you haven't noticed the stockmarket isn't going anywhere. Boomers are starting to draw money out also.


The 401k money is now directed into bonds. Now bond yields are dropping.

[Recursion]

15. It will be a triple whammy when the big cohort retires

1: Vastly less 401(k) money going in every couple of weeks
2: Cashing in of the bonds in the trust fund will hit the general budget
3: No more buying of those bonds will screw with the yield of T bills

[ieoeja]

27. Yup. 401(k) is in much greater peril than social security.

But there is no push to "fix" that.

I have a feeling we are going to see a lot of starving old people in 15 to 20 years.

[Common Sense Party]

19. Actually, most 401k contributions haven't changed.

The VAST majority of plan participants do NOT change their asset allocation, regardless of what happens in the stock market.

The stories suggesting individual investors are 'fleeing' stock funds--that has to do with people who own funds in their IRAs or taxable accounts. And those people are almost always wrong.

Personally, when I see the herd getting OUT of stocks, that makes me want to get IN them. When the herd jumps INTO stocks, that's when I want to get out--or lessen my holdings.

[The_Casual_Observer]

29. Your investment strategy is so quaint & 90's!

Sort of like "dollar cost averaging", something you don't hear about anymore.

Individual 401k investors, if they weren't smart enough to jump out of stocks 2 years ago, are all still hoping for the big rebound. If they have any sense at all, they would be directing any new money into cash & bonds.

[Recursion]

32. That was the attitude that made Bear Stearns so good for so long

"Don't hold on to crap. If it's crap today, it will be crap tomorrow."

(Jim Cayne probably used a more salty word than "crap".) More people should think that way.

[Common Sense Party]

34. My strategy works for me.

Pray tell, when should these individual investors that switch to bonds and cash decide to get back into stocks?

[The_Casual_Observer]

38. I know from just watching it that just when it looks like it's a good time, it isn't.

It seems that there isn't going to be a good time for a long time.

[Common Sense Party]

42. Probably true, and if I were close to retirement, I sure wouldn't be

following the strategy I am now. I'm retiring in 23 years or so. The market will be MUCH better before then, and I will be happy I stayed in and kept buying during the bad times.

[The_Casual_Observer]

43. A couple of years ago I suggested to my 63 year old clueless

co worker that he transfer out of all his stocks and into "Stable Value". It was the only financial advice I've ever given to anyone, I actually did it for him. I have a friend for life.

[Common Sense Party]

44. I would have bought you a car.

I'm a 401(k) education specialist. One of the more painful experiences I've had was sitting down with a 62-year old car salesman in February 2009, looking at his account, and finding out he was 100% in stock funds--and some pretty aggressive ones. He was wanting to retire this year or next. That won't happen now.

[Silent3]

31. I have little faith in my own ability to guess the direction...

...of the market, but then again, I don't know if the so-called "experts" are worthy of much faith either. There seems to be an expert for every opinion and an opinion for every expert. I don't have enough domain expertise to have a good sense of who is full of shit and who knows their shit. It seems to me as though economics so volatile that being smart only shifts your odds of predicting the economy accurately a little bit, with so much else being pure damned luck.

I decided to shift my 401k into a "value preservation" fund, out a the mostly-stocks fund, about a week and a half ago. I'm waiting to see employment finally improve significantly, or other signs of a more robust recovery, before putting my money back into stocks.

I got a bonus earlier this year in the form of a stock grant from the company I work for. Last time I'd checked that one stock had lost 20% of its value. I hope by time the grant partially vests, and I can cash out some of it, the stock price will be a lot healthier.

[Greyhound]

23. Contributions are dropping and the firms that have to administer them are locked into

a rigged game with no escape.

[cbdo2007]

16. The dow has been below 10,000 a bunch of times over the past few months.

It fluctuates. It always has and it always will.

If that makes you nervous it's probably best not to watch the day to day and focus on the long term.

[Common Sense Party]

17. Too bad my 401k contribution doesn't go in for another week

I'm going to miss out on this mini-dip.

[bemildred]

18. Nikkei has dipped under 9000 again.

Hmm, maybe something is going on.

[Greyhound]

21. I predicted 9500 in Sept.

Housing and commercial RE, combined with the banksters withholding our $ from us, is bringing about the worst predictions.

They're keeping people in the game through fear and the illusion that you have some $ left. I've already been through this, but I'm sorry so many are joining me.

[ieoeja]

24. Investors cashing out before the tax holiday expires next year.

Then next year they will be re-investing as much as possible knowing a Republican will lower taxes again in the future. And then the cycle repeats.

I think we outsmarted ourselves on this one. Not wanting to raise taxes, we figured we'd just let the holiday expire. But waiting extends the cashout period. Which in turn extends the bad economy.

Obama will come out okay because that reinvestment the next two years should push the economy back up making him a savior. But it may cost us this year unless we keep reminding people that the economy crashed because of thirty years of GOP economics.

[potassiumnitrate]

25. As someone who follows this sort of thing...

It hasn't been confirmed yet that this is anything more than a typical bull market correction. In fact, this is the time of year where markets are always bad. The old saying "Sell in May and go away", and all that.

Right now it's kind of up in the air. If the next couple of weeks are significantly down, then there MIGHT be another bear market ahead. But right now, it's still nothing more than a bull market correction.

[Hannah Bell]

26. it's august.

[potassiumnitrate]

33. Hence the 'Go away' part

From May to the end of September are almost always a bad time for the markets. It's a cyclical thing.

[cbdo2007]

30. and market corrections are a good time to get great companies on sale.

They fall with the market as a whole, then break out during stable/good markets.

[Gman]

28. Terrible existing home sales report

I believe it's the worst since 1968 when they started keeping records. I expected a really big drop today.

[Common Sense Party]

35. DOW's going below 10,000....

Not today, it isn't.

[Name removed]

39. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[cbdo2007]

40. You're early - the "Dow 5000" people don't usually come in until mid-September.

But welcome to the party!

[Common Sense Party]

45. Why would we trust Goldman Sachs analysts?

After all they've done for us...

[Warren DeMontague]

41. I'm confused. Am I supposed to be celebrating, or hiding in the basement with a can of beans?

DU is so confusing, sometimes!!!