AIBU to wonder why there isn't a single thread about the stock market ?

[MrGin]

there are threads about knickers, threads about politeness ( or not ) , lots of threads about riots, threads about lunch venues, threads about holiday wardrobes.

But not a single one about the fact the global stock market is currently dropping like a stone.

Is this not an important issue ? Do mums not get involved in these discussion. Or is there a financial section of MN I' missing. Is no one worried ?

Actually there is one thread on chat about banks, but that turned into a personal attack on a personal issue.

I'm by no means a financial wizz ( far from it ) but even when I see stock markets falling 6% , 5% in a day on consecutive days I can't help but thing something rather bad is happening right now.....

Was the French bank sell-off triggered by a 12 part fictional series that appeared in Le Monde (which was picked up and misinterpreted by the Mail on Sunday)?

Read this fascinating article from the New York Times:

www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/business/global/source-sought-for-false-story-on-french-bank.html

What do you think?

Hahahaha, that's hilarious, Earlybird! It's a fictional story in itself: pretentious British journalists wanting to show (a) that they read French and (b) that they are soooophisticated enough to interpret a roman à clef... After all, it was a Cambridge French oral exam which had the topic "Les journaux français font plus de cas des idées que des faits." (loosely: French newspapers are more concerned with ideas/issues than with facts; more significantly, it concerns the loftier position of ideas, vis-à-vis the lowliness of vulgar facts).

Note that I said "a fictional story in itself". I'm not going to be sucked into the trap of imagining pretentiousness played a rôle.... No, that would be naïve... Wouldn't it?

So, are we in for another week of precipitous drops on the market - or are we going to bounce up and down?

What are your predictions?

Have you ever seen MoneyWeek? They do a free daily e-mail, and you can read many of their articles online without subscribing.

I know it's sort of wrong to seek out information that validates my world-view, but I have been a bear for many years, and it's so nice to have a corrective to all the business bullshit out there! They have been dissing high house-prices for years, too!

Going back to an earlier topic, here's what MoneyWeek says about why banning short-selling won't work.

Thought I'd revive this old thread, as the financial markets are getting more worrying each day.

Today's latest:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15051883

The terrifying lead sentence (scare tactics or dire warning of terrible state of affairs?) :

'' The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned it may not have enough money to bail out larger eurozone countries if the debt crisis were to spread.''

In addition to the woes of Greece, we already know that Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland are in serious trouble too.

I'm seriously wondering if it would be wise to sell most investments and sit with cash until the situation is more stable.

Are any of the rest of you planning to take action? Why or why not?

I'm not selling as I've already suffered losses and I think it's too hard to call the bottom- often when it bottoms out it spikes up and if you miss that, it's hard to make up your losses. I'm a LT investor so will probably just sit tight- I'm still up vs where I put the money in in April 2009. Also, if governments decide to inflate their way out of the shit, then cash is the last thing you want. I've missed gold, don't fancy UK property one little bit, so, tbh, stock market's the lesser of the evils.

Very interesting article the other day (cant remember where or I'd link to it) about how the end of the Euro is the end of the EU, which in turn would put Europe into a huge recession.

Very "interesting times" as our Chinese friends would say

I agree that it is impossible to call the bottom, but the political/financial situation isn't hopeful , and we have every reason to believe things are on track to get worse before they get better.

There is more worrying news every day out of Europe, and there seems to be no cohesive plan about how to turn things around. I am frightened Europe will have its' own 'Lehman moment'.

America isn't in great shape either. I think Obama is in over his head. The Republicans will block any plan he has to improve unemployment/the economy because they want him to look bad so he will be a one term president. Anything he does to improve the situation will make him look better, so the Republicans simply won't support him in any way.

Unfortunately, I owned Lehman and AIG () in 2008, so was badly hurt by the implosion of both. I want to be pro-active and protect myself if there is a 'round 2', as I have only managed to regain/rebuild what was lost (well, I had done it a few months ago before the stock market started dropping 3-5% on far too many days).

The only thing I'd consider investing in right now is a vegetable patch and a few cows.

I'm sure I read on Friday that the average ISA investment of 10k is now worth around 8k. Ditto pension lump sums.

Can't help thinking it's all just a massive ponzi scheme and the tide is going out big time.

I think now is the time to invest, actually.
The FTSE sank to 3800 maybe 6 months ago? We bought at about 4100 & sold at about 4900 (made maybe ?300 quid profit). FTSE is holding up pretty well now, imho.

I just sank 2k into my pension (unit trust) about 10 days ago.
Only thing I regret is that I didn't have the foresight to wait a week.
Hmm... maybe we should sink another 10k tomorrow, come to think of it.

Honestly, you guys, have you forgotten the old mantra for individual/amateur investors, about investing for at least five years? Any money you sink plan to leave it for five years to be sure of getting a profit?

The odds of my 2k being worth less in 5 years than it is now are small, and it's especially unlikely that it will be worth than 2k in cash deposits (being eroded fast by inflation).

Anyway, I hope not to cash in on the pension in 20-30 yrs. If the 2k is somehow worth less (in real terms) than it is now, then we (society, British economy) will have been thru such a terrible financial disaster that the least of my problems will be to worry about that 2k.

So...now is the time to invest.
When the economy is booming & everybody is talking about record stock market highs for seemingly years on end...that's when you buy gold.

MrGin - does that mean you've cashed out, or are you riding the roller coaster hoping that what goes down must (eventually) go up?

Hola Gin :)

It'll go back up again. It always does.

I'm one of those people who skim-read the financial news, then sigh and forget about it. TBH it is boring, frustrating and depressing. I don't have enough cash floating around to make any meaningful investments, I don't have a pension because I got my first grown-up job in 2008 when everything was imploding and have seen too many of my parents' friends lose their pensions to trust one really, our house is secure, there is nothing I can do to stop the huge companies DH and I work for going under if the economy sinks and I can't stop Greece going bankrupt either. There is absolutely nothing I can do except sit tight, save like mad in case we lose our jobs and hope that someone in the driving seat has a clue what they're doing. So why read and worry? It isn't that I don't care but this has been going on for 3 years and there is only so much doom and gloom I can take.

Ever heard the expression "Bottom pickers get smelly fingers"?

MrGin I'm with you on the vegetable patch and a few cows, I'd throw in a couple of hens too and every piece of silver you can get your hands on.

Italy are talking about implementing a one off wealth tax. Quite how they will implement that I have no idea but a midnight raid on bank held assets would be my wild guess.