Good companies are getting hammered now.   Pretty easy investing decisions coming up in spades.

Good time to buy up cheap properties.

I expect to see it gradually dropping over the next year or two.

Look out for companies where the price drop is media driven. The big scare stories.

Just because companies have been good in the past, it doesn't mean they will continue that way when new economic conditions take hold. That is, they could go down (or at least experience problems) through no fault of their own.

Originally posted by baff

I expect to see it gradually dropping over the next year or two.

 

Look out for companies where the price drop is media driven. The big scare stories.

It will probably last longer than 2 years and will probably be the end of the U.S super power status.

Another mega corp will probably go bankrupt soon.

biz.yahoo.com/rb/081009/business_us_gm_shares.html

German officials in particular have been openly critical in the past weeks, saying the United States and Britain had delayed for years efforts to regulate financial markets that were out of control.

"The United States lacked laws, a regulatory framework that would have prevented" what Social-Democrat Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck called "uncontrolled speculation" in an interview on September 28.

"The USA will lose its superpower status in the global financial system. The world financial system is becoming multi-polar," Steinbrueck said on September 25 in a speech to parliament.

www.breitbart.com/article.php

Another 7+% drop in the DOW. The government is starting to turn to draconian ideas like taking control of banks.

Well, I think of this as like an earthquake that creates a tsunami. We're currently in the middle of the earthquake, and while that is bad enough for those who experience it, the real danger lies in the tsunami that it has generated... as when market changes bleed back into the main economy and move into the labor pool. And then when inflation starts, as it certainly will.

As with a tsunami, different places will be effected at different times and with different severity, but all will be due to the original earthquake.

Where this analogy really breaks down is that, to some degree, this earthquake was predictable: the signs, the stresses, were there to be seen. Maybe not the exact moment, the flaw in the crust, but the conditions were all there.

We haven't seen the real damage from this yet, and wont for quite some time.

This might sound like dangerous advice but I think a 50/50 investment in Ford and GM would likely net a substantial return over the next 5 years.  It is hard to imagine a scenario where both fail and do not exist anymore.  At current capitalizations the company that survives should enjoy at least a 300% return from current price levels (especially GM). 

Although Ford has the better chance of surviving...

'3:42PM Ford Motor and Ford Motor Credit ratings placed on Watch Negative at S&P (F) 2.17 -0.48 : S&P placed its 'B-' long-term corporate credit and other ratings on U.S. automaker Ford Motor on CreditWatch with negative implications. "The CreditWatch placement reflects the rapidly weakening state of most global automotive markets along with capital market conditions that will remain a major challenge for the foreseeable future." Included in the CreditWatch placement is Ford's finance unit, Ford Motor Credit (B-/Watch Neg/--). S%P believes Ford has adequate liquidity for at least the rest of 2008 as measured by cash balances, and available bank facilities, but the accelerating deteriorating industry fundamentals will be a serious challenge to liquidity during 2009.' (From Yahoo! Financial page)

The exact same notice was given for GM as well.

If the DOW adjusts like the housing market will it settle around 1000-1500 points?

Originally posted by Tuor7

'3:42PM Ford Motor and Ford Motor Credit ratings placed on Watch Negative at S&P (F) 2.17 -0.48 : S&P placed its 'B-' long-term corporate credit and other ratings on U.S. automaker Ford Motor on CreditWatch with negative implications. "The CreditWatch placement reflects the rapidly weakening state of most global automotive markets along with capital market conditions that will remain a major challenge for the foreseeable future." Included in the CreditWatch placement is Ford's finance unit, Ford Motor Credit (B-/Watch Neg/--). S%P believes Ford has adequate liquidity for at least the rest of 2008 as measured by cash balances, and available bank facilities, but the accelerating deteriorating industry fundamentals will be a serious challenge to liquidity during 2009.' (From Yahoo! Financial page)

The exact same notice was given for GM as well.

Exactly.  Right when the market starts singing the death knell of companies such as this is when the ideal buying opportunities arise. 

I have two significant buy orders at $2.02 and $1.60.

14,000s to 8,000s in one year, the dow lost over 40% [b]THIS YEAR[/b]... so far, and there is still eleven weeks to go. ?Can this be blamed on pres bush2's mismanagement too? How low will it go?

How low will it go...

Originally posted by Libertasplz

This might sound like dangerous advice but I think a 50/50 investment in Ford and GM would likely net a substantial return over the next 5 years.  It is hard to imagine a scenario where both fail and do not exist anymore.  At current capitalizations the company that survives should enjoy at least a 300% return from current price levels (especially GM). 

Although Ford has the better chance of surviving...

 

I'm not very keen on investing in things that are at risk of being nationalised. Governments have a tendency to screw the shareholder.

Right idea though. Their stocks will be seriously low.

Look out for when the management gets replaced by a new CEO from a previously successful company who takes his pay bonus in stock options.

If that happens, that's when it will turn around.

People in the know, who get paid millions, don't quit their jobs unless they have a pretty good idea they are onto a winner.

Just a wild guess:  1,000+ point drop on friday? 

These sell offs have been happening towards the end of the day... wonder if the approaching end of the week will really put the sellers in a frenzy.

Those end of the day orders are mostly automated, meaning someone has set up a program to sell at certain times or when prices in a particular stock reach some preset level. Usually, these things are done in large batches which makes for pretty hefty swings in stock price.

I think tomorrow is going to be really bad. You realize that we tanked over 600 points today even after all of the news that should have had some positive impact on it? Not just niggly things, but big stuff like the government socialising the banks, the federal reserve cutting interest rates and getting into commercial paper? Oh and...The Lehman CDS auction is tomorrow omg.



 

I'm not quite familiar with it, but we should always be ready for anything, our economy is that good either. We must start selling those stocks

link

A year ago this weekend, the Dow Jones industrial average had just finished a slow-motion crash. Over eight days, it fell 2,400 points, or 22 percent, and stood at 8,451.

One year later, the Dow is at 9,865. It's up 51 percent from a 12-year low of 6,547 on March 9 - when some investors feared the financial world was coming to an end.

But the complete story of the Dow's journey since the economy soured goes back a little further. Two years ago this week, on Oct. 7, 2007, the Dow set its record high of 14,164.

What followed was a three-act play. For five months, from October 2007 through the collapse of investment bank Bear Stearns in mid-March 2008, the Dow fell 2,000 points in an orderly fashion as investors anticipated a garden-variety recession. From mid-March until Labor Day, the Dow rose and fell but was little changed. Right after Labor Day, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and AIG failed over 10 days. The credit markets froze, and investors panicked, fearing another Great Depression. There were rallies amid the downward spiral that ensued, but over six months - until the low on March 9 - the Dow fell 5,000 points.

So where do we stand today?
The seven-month rally since March has yet to wipe away all the losses, but few expected that the Dow would be edging back to 10,000 so soon. Unemployment is close to 10 percent, but other parts of the economy are stabilizing. Consumers are still hunkered down, but retail sales showed a slight gain in September. The panic of last fall has been replaced by the resignation that the worst is over but it might be years before the economy booms again.

- $11.2 trillion: Total losses in the stock market from the Dow's peak in October 2007 to the March 2009 bottom.

- $4.6 trillion: Total gains in the stock market since March 9.

- 6: The number of the 10 worst point drops in the 113-year history of the Dow that occurred in 2008. The 777-point drop on Sept. 29, 2008, ranks No. 1.

- 3: The number of the 10 worst percentage drops that occurred in 2008. The Sept. 29 decline of 9 percent is the third-biggest behind 22.6 percent on Oct. 19, 1987, and 10 percent on April 14, 2000.

This just in: Volatility is volatile.

Just gotta know,  who was smart and got them some Ford stocks?  Up over 200% this year.

Hehe....  GM still scares me....

Not a stock guy,  but when they drop that low you know there is no way to go but up...  well maybe away,  or bought out by the chinese with the IOU's or somthing.