Is it a good time to enter the market?

[Ellipsis]

It looks like today might be one of the worst days in a long time for world markers. If that is the case almost any investment (well unless the company collapses) is under valued to some degree. Then again we still might not have hit bottom...

[Nomadic]

If the answer to that question was obvious (yes it is the bottom), there would be no market uncertainty and everybody would be buying

[stopharian]

not the bottom still lots of uncertainty, AIG, fed rate cuts? etc. gonna be a rough week. some people see the Dow in the 9000 range in the near future

[aelan]

I wouldn't go in as yet. AIG hasn't confirmed their financing as far as I know, and at one of their branches here today, there was a long line of people waiting to cash out their policies / seek answers. The impact of Lehman is still not quantified too.

[Ferrus]

Leave in a year (decade?) or two?

[stopharian]

Speaking of AIG just for fun I bought 75 shares($2.30per)(it was as low as $1.25 a share this morn) It could blow up and I loose $80 but It was $16 a share on friday and $25 a share this time last week. Somehow I dont see em letting AIG go down.

[Ferrus]

Speaking of AIG just for fun I bought 75 shares($2.30per)(it was as low as $1.25 a share this morn) It could blow up and I loose $80 but It was $16 a share on friday and $25 a share this time last week. Somehow I dont see em letting AIG go down.
I do. The US Treasury seems now bent on enforcing moral hazard, they have run out of cash themselves and... it is an insurance firm, tangentially connected to the main streams of investment. Just like Arthur Andersen and we know what happened there.

[stopharian]

I do. The US Treasury seems now bent on enforcing moral hazard, they have run out of cash themselves and... it is an insurance firm, tangentially connected to the main streams of investment. Just like Arthur Andersen and we know what happened there.

Meh like I said Its more to make the news interesting than anything else. My leet math skillz prove I probably shouldnt be in the market at all(If it goes bust I loose $171 not $80)

[djm]

Meh like I said Its more to make the news interesting than anything else. My leet math skillz prove I probably shouldnt be in the market at all(If it goes bust I loose $171 not $80)

Pah, that makes you better at maths than most brokers and analysts I know in the city.

[Limey]

Hells yes!
The Fed are probably going to slice a half point of the interest rate which will trigger a buying spree.

I'm heavily into ethanol, which admittedly is a big gamble (but then again, "blue chip" seems to be a gamble these days with banks failing - AIG looks to be next).

Also in the face of viable electric cars coming from GM and Ford and BofA telling everyone that ethanol companies were overvalued.

I've been watching several for about seven years now and a few are back at the lowest points in about five years. Last month, I bought one at six cents that has been trading at over a dollar in the last 12 months and immediately tripled. They're all taking a beating again because the market as a whole drags everything down.

Today is a day to roll the dice, pull the trigger, get on board and if the fed don't slice rates, then the rest of the week should be a bear market.

I wish I had put more cash into my trading account, but I'm probably going to put a limit order in to see if I can pick up PEIX at $1.30 with what I have.

[Ellipsis]

Alright one question: how do I get into the market? any tips? any services that I should consider using?

I could probably look it up but you guys are much more useful (and I want to make you guys feel useful).

[garak]

"If you have to ask..."

[avolkiteshvara]

Gold prices are a pretty good indicator of scared people. Looks to gold for some indicators.

[avolkiteshvara]

Speaking of AIG just for fun I bought 75 shares($2.30per)(it was as low as $1.25 a share this morn) It could blow up and I loose $80 but It was $16 a share on friday and $25 a share this time last week. Somehow I dont see em letting AIG go down.


I think this is a good bet. I might copy you.

They have a robust Insurance business that is regulated at the state level. No probelms there. Fed agreed to loan them $ @ 12% which means they think they can be profitable enough to pay that off.

[airjaw]

Um if you have to ask INTPc you probably should just stay away.

It's kinda like someone coming in here asking for poker advice because he wants to gamble on high stakes poker.. only worse because there is less skill involved in making money on stocks

[walfin]

Um if you have to ask INTPc you probably should just stay away.

Eh, I'm quite sure there are some people here who've made a killing or two before.

Anyway if you buy when the buying spree comes, you'll be too late. Can you really be smarter than the market? While I don't know the answer to that, you certainly can be different. Think long term. Do you think an entire country like the US can go totally into the shitter? If it does, you're screwed anyway, so what does it matter if you lose a paltry few thousand (hopefully not much more than that)?


Alright one question: how do I get into the market? any tips? any services that I should consider using?
Online trading is probably cheaper than going through a brokerage.

[Limey]

The trouble with getting in now is knowing how deep the rabbit hole goes.
Yesterday, I thought that a company losing 50% of its value was the bottom of the proverbial barrel. Imagine my surprise when it was actually over 80% - a slight rebound today means I'm only shafted by 25%

For the rest of you, masturbation is a guaranteed ROI.

[Ferrus]

The bigger problem is that because of government interventions and scrambling efforts by certain businesses, the stocks are dropping and rebounding in a highly eratic way. I have no seen any action yet that will mark an end to this issue, except perhaps when Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs cease to be indepedent. And even then, we'll have to see how far the contagion has spread.