If anyone has an opinion on a bottom sing out.
Some number > 0 on the SP 500?
We have had some serious technical (psychological) damage. We need to find a bottom, rally off of it .... and test it again successfully. We have not seen that yet.
As I type this, overseas (far east) markets are down 2-4%. yet the sp 500 futures are up 0.3%. That is a bad thing. We need a whoosh down on an opening on heavy volume (or overseas), followed by a recovery. Some time after that (not right away, time is needed to heal), we need a retest of the lows...which can slightly break the low but needs to be on lower volume with a move up. These things need to happen (in my opinion), otherwise it is just more people trying to catch a falling knife and we will continue to see continued down.
I've been nibbling here and there, but nothing serious. In addition, I've sold some weaker players so I have more cash to buy companies I would rather own. Now is the time to build a list of stocks you have wanted to own, but haven't because they were too expensive. Look for financially strong companies who are taking share and who have secular trends in their favor. In good markets, lots of things go up. In a wash out, the strong get stronger.
There is an old saying, "Don't cut the flowers and keep the weeds". In brutal days like today, everything get hammered, and this starts to present opportunities to move from weak players to companies with stronger fundamentals.
Look for companies that have relative strength in the downturn. These are the potential winners when the turn comes, but also be aware that people sometimes sell things where they can get money - which means that even the good ones get sold (in violation of my flowers vs weeds analogy above). Sometimes they get hammered towards the END of the downdraft.
Good luck. Alternatively, sell everything and invest in CD's