Anyone who thinks this is a "buying opportunity" in the stock market is a damn fool.

[LeftyFingerPop]

Be careful, and protect yourself.

[DrDan]

1. there will be millions made . .

[LeftyFingerPop]

2. By whom?

[DrDan]

15. by people a lot smarter than me

maybe they sell short and take advantage of a dropping market - in some sectors

maybe they have access to cheap mortgages

You can't float $700B without some getting rich.

[Burma Jones]

3. Buy a shotgun and 500 pounds of rice and beans maybe.......

Well, if the Dow goes down to 8,000...maybe then I'll buy......

[wtmusic]

How long have you been investing?

Do you have any historical basis for your opinion?

[Warpy]

4. I've been sitting on my hands for months

and I have a very large chunk of change ready to go and a few things I want to pick up.

This is far from over. It won't be over until these thieves are long out of office.

[dmallind]

5. So your thought is the market will never exceed this level again?

Or at least never within the timeframe of anyone saving for retirement now?

That's about 40-45 year timeframe that you're saying we'll never see DJIA at 11K again?

If you are that prescient I'd be impressed. I bet you're wrong.

People have said the same many times during many downturns. They were all wrong.

[slackmaster]

6. Does that include people who are investing what they can every month

i.e. dollar-cost averaging over the long haul?

My general strategy is NOT to do what everyone else is doing, especially when people are reacting out of panic.

[gravity]

7. This is the signal that it is time to buy

The best time to buy is when everyone panics and there is blood on the streets

[On the Road]

8. Yup, I Used to Subscribe to Bloodinthestreets.com

which was a stock picking service based on that philosophy. A small number of their picks went bankrupt, but an overwhelming majority recovered.

[gravity]

9. I wouldn't buy anything that risks going bankrupt

Buy solid companies with good balance sheets

[On the Road]

13. Well, You Have a Choice

How it works is that they publish a list of target stocks and three descending price levels to buy at. The first one you buy 1%, the second 2%, and the third 3% of your portfolio. There is a sell price once the stocks begin to recover.

They target companies with real assets to reduce the risk of bankruptcy, but if you are worried about a particular stock you can just stay away from it. The ones I had problems with were MCI (which cooked its books) and Excite/At Home. The rest performed much better than the market average.

BTW, for some reason it's now call www.getfolio.com.

[tuckessee]

10. It's like buying "downer" cows for a song. n/t

[1awake]

11. of course it 's not

but it will be soon.

[RB TexLa]

12. You are not limited to American stocks. With the government about to aid in devaluing the dollar

there are great buying opportunities.

[El Pinko]

14. Same goes for the housing market.

If you are in CA, Phoenix, Vegas, S. FL, DC Metro, Austin, Jackson Hole, this is nowhere NEAR the bottom, and those markets are all still extremely high-priced relative to local incomes.

I predict that the median for a house in California will be between $200 and $200K before this is through (down from about $500K in 2006 - already about $350K at present).

No reason to think that the drops will be any less precipitous in low-pay, low-quality-of-life areas like Vegas and Phoenix.