Waiting for the Stock Market to Open
 

DOW futures trading was halted this morning after a record drop. Predictions are the circuit breakers will go off when the DOW drops 1100 points.

I'm digging my head a little deeper in the sand...I don't wanna watch :(

tha roof tha roof tha roof is on fire!

400pts down. hang on, this'll be the 6 Flags rollercoaster from hell. :D

Looks like we will really be able to buy low after today! Course who knows, this afternoon it could go up 500 points.

Just like a hormonal woman...

I've got a pretty good stomach for risk but I've cashed out entirely. I'm out. I most certainly will buy back in at some point, but not for a while. It's just too insane right now.

And keep in mind I trade options regularly too - normally volatility is an options trader's friend but these days things are SO crazy you can't even do the normal kinds of things (straddles, etc.) that one would ordinarily to take advantage of these kinds of conditions. The options prices have gone so flaky it's no better than gambling at this point - I'd literally have better chances of success by throwing it "all in on black" over at the Manalay Bay Casino (and the chicks are hotter...)

Burn, baby, burn. I am in a buying mood and there's a fire sale going on.

I might be crazy, but I've been buying - I'm young so I'm looking at this as a buying opportunity.

Buying isn't "crazy" at all at these levels. I've been doing some of that, but since I'm in it "for the long haul" I'm pretty much in there all the time. If I could time it, I would :)

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I'm buying right now. Solid companies with great numbers are at 52 week lows.

How long are you expecting to live?

I won't believe we've hit bottom until we see some of the still "crazy" valued stuff sold off to levels that reflect their risk.

Even then, we are in for another Great Depression -- because the government is preventing the bankrupt financial companies from actually going bankrupt -- which will make earning money in stocks extremely difficult in the coming decades.

If we would just get all the bad debt out of the system -- by letting the firms that made the bad loans go belly up, as they deserve to -- we'd have a severe recession for 12-18 months then be on our way to a solid recovery.

Right now, all the bad debt being hidden is like poison in the economy. The longer you keep the bad debt in the system (even if the government takes it on its balance sheet) the longer it destroys markets.

Get the bad debt out. Let the bad actors fail. Then we can move forward with a recovery.

Buying now makes sense, but it also makes sense to wait. I doubt we are to far off the bottom, but I don't see any reason there should be a sustained rally.

At this point, I would rather have the cash.

I'm 35 and most of my money is in cash right now. I think its a good time to buy, but slowly (dollar cost averaging) during the troughs. Market doesn't seem to want to go below 8200 - and nobody knows when or where the bottom is. I just don't want to miss the boat when it turns around. I will need about a good couple of years to build it up to where I'd like it anyway. I've tripled my sons 529 contributions, we have another 14 years before we'll need that money.