What happened to the TSX this morning

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Running_Man So this means you suggest selling now while the market is high? Or that a 2% decline is an indication the market has gone to hell and now is the time to buy.

That's the encouraging thing to remember - - it's ONLY 2% so far. It just looks really bad that the Dow is down 221 so far today, with hours more to go. But a drop of 221 is really only 2%.

Gee. And my 401K was just $45 short of getting to an intermediate goal. Oh well. Hopefully it will get there later in 2007.

[Sam]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hamlet Note-- I am 100% equities (I have a fair amount in REITs though).

I have REIT too, and it's doing just as bad as the sp500. Down 2.16% as of now.

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hamlet I'm 34. My portfolio is much, much bigger than the last time I had to ride out a big correction (2002). It didn't faze me (much ) then, but I'm wondering if I have the stomach to go thru a 25% correction now that there is another zero on the end of the numbers. We will see Note-- I am 100% equities (I have a fair amount in REITs though).

In 2002, I too had very little invested. I figured my company match, and the tax delayed status of my 401K made up for the slump so I kept contributing the maximum and felt it was a learning experience. You're right - - it's a whole lot more intimidating when there's more zeros at stake.

[Zathras]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audreyh1 It's not time to go shopping yet either. At least not for me. I like to see at least a 5% correction if not 10%. Audrey

Getting close Audrey, or are you going to hold out for 10% (I think I am)

[brewer12345]

I did some shopping today, but held some cash back in case t his continues. I would have to guess taht it will be short and sharp rather than long and grinding (at least for developed markets), but you never know.

[My Dream]

Well back to the topic of TSX, it looks like it's down about 418.95 so far today. OSPTX.TO 3:15PM ET 12,985.51 418.95 3.13% 211,332,802

[d]

Quote:

So this means you suggest selling now while the market is high? Or that a 2% decline is an indication the market has gone to hell and now is the time to buy.

didn't say either ...

[wabmester]

Did you guys watch the decline at 3pm EST? The DOW was down about 200, then in a matter of seconds went down 500. It was a very broad decline too.

Only some Really Big Traders with lots of computers can do that. I wonder if all the big boys use the same algorithms....

[brewer12345]

Made no sense to me , but maybe there were some margin calls?

It will be interesting to see if there were any hedge funds that blew up as a result of this. Anyone short the VIX got gutted today...

[Sam]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wab Did you guys watch the decline at 3pm EST? The DOW was down about 200, then in a matter of seconds went down 500. It was a very broad decline too.

Same thing happened to SP500 and Nasdaq. REIT followed the same pattern 20 minutes after.

[ScaredtoQuit]

Quote:

Originally Posted by eridanus Argh!! What if it goes down 2% tomorrow and 2% Thursday?!? I think we're in for a spiral down into the abyss. I'm out. I'm going 100% bonds.

Just in time to miss tomorrow's rally!

[smileydog]

OK... we're down a bit but as a long haul investor I have to believe that this is more of a correction. I'm thinking we need to see how things look at the end of the week.

dog

[audreyh1]

Holy cow! That was pretty spectacular. We hadn't seen anything like that since 2004!

So much for "circuit breakers".

The good thing is that when sell-offs are this sharp, the pain is usually over more quickly.

Some bozo did something really crazy at 3p.m. ET as far as I can tell.

Audrey

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brewer12345 Made no sense to me , but maybe there were some margin calls? It will be interesting to see if there were any hedge funds that blew up as a result of this. Anyone short the VIX got gutted today...

Seems like whenever something this dramatic happens - just like last summer - info comes out later about one or more hedge funds doing some kind of megatrade that went awry.

Audrey

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zathras Getting close Audrey, or are you going to hold out for 10% (I think I am)

Well - actually I'll be holding out for how much my asset allocation is out of whack - I'm not sure exactly how that corresponds to the stock market averages. With bonds having such a huge rally today as well it might push me to reallocate sooner than I expected.

So - I won't know how close I am until after 5p.m. today when I can download all my values and run my asset allocation spreadsheet.

Audrey

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wab Did you guys watch the decline at 3pm EST? The DOW was down about 200, then in a matter of seconds went down 500. It was a very broad decline too. Only some Really Big Traders with lots of computers can do that. I wonder if all the big boys use the same algorithms....

Well - circuit breakers were on, I think, which limits program trading. Or at least that is the way it used to work.

According to bloomberg.com:

"Technical Problems

With an hour left before the close of exchanges, trading terminals showed the Dow average dropped 178 points in a single minute. Dow Jones & Co., which oversees the measure, later attributed the decline to a technical problems with its data servers."

If it was a technical data server problem - well, then I don't know why the recovery wasn't more dramatic. Pretty crazy if this was a technical problem.

Audrey

[audreyh1]

More on the system technical breakdown today:

http://www.thestreet.com/_tscana/mar.../10341324.html

Audrey

[bpp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by eridanus Quote: Originally Posted by Spanky Would cash be better? Oh, maybe you're right. Ahhhhhhh!!! Arghhhhhh!

Rocks. Shiny rocks.

[Brat]

2.2%

[Vincenzo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by smileydog OK... we're down a bit but as a long haul investor I have to believe that this is more of a correction. I'm thinking we need to see how things look at the end of the week. dog

I read, what I thought was, a good posting from someone on the Vanguard Diehards forum at M*. It went something like this:

"The stock market is like a man with a yo-yo walking up stairs. Stop watching the yo-yo. Focus on the stairs."

Think long-term and this will be nothing but a blip.