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November 20, 2008


Boomers Develop Taste for Baked Beans

U.S. Stocks Slide to Five-Year Lows as Banks, Carmakers Tumble

“The S&P 500 plunged 6.1 percent to 806.58 and extended its 2008 retreat to 45 percent, poised for its worst year since 1931. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 427.47 points, or 5.1 percent, to 7,997.28. The Nasdaq Composite Index decreased 6.5 percent to 1,386.42.”

The “support” level everyone has been watching (838.50 on the SP futures) finally gave way, with a thud. Has so much (paper) wealth ever evaporated so quickly?

17 Responses to “Boomers Develop Taste for Baked Beans”

  1. Brian said:

    Is there a potential double top pattern in the S&P 500 with a price target of ~0?

  2. C. Maoxian said:

    @Brian: I no longer project, I just slavishly follow.

  3. CapitalGain said:

    Hey what the hell happened today from 10:30 to 11:00 that caused every stock in the S&P (might be a bit exaggerated) “flat slide” on max volume.

    The daily charts look whacked!

  4. C. Maoxian said:

    @Cap: Dunno, but it looks weird, like trading stopped for half an hour or so then resumed or some kind of data glitch? I was sleeping like a baby at the time.

  5. CapitalGain said:

    Yeah I was doing Oxicotin and bong hits and missed it too, though I did revive and added to the buy and hope port during the last 10 minutes of trading.

  6. David said:

    You being an INFP explains alot. I wondered how someone as intelligent as you could be so blind to the politics of the left, and have no common sense to human nature, when there is so much evidence to the contrary. Very few males have this type, btw.

  7. Tom said:

    David: How do you know that very few males have that type. Can you provide a link to some data distributions of male vs female for Myers-Briggs test? I’d be curious to see that myself.

  8. David said:

    Tom, looking at the data, it appears I was full of crap. This is the bias by sex:

    (I) Male bias
    (N) Male bias
    (F) Female bias
    (P) Female Bias

    INFP’s are only about 1% anyway. Google INFP percent sex

  9. Hudson said:

    This market is not a falling knife- it is a nuclear hachet.

  10. David said:

    http://www.capt.org/mbti-assessment/estimated-frequencies.htm

    It looks like the male INFP is 3.5% male, small but I expected less

  11. C. Maoxian said:

    @Hudson: Pretty scary, eh? So many have never lost so much so fast.

  12. pete said:

    just spoke to my parents retired in fl- blue hairs freakin out down there.

  13. C. Maoxian said:

    @pete: The blue hairs don’t have to worry because the bonds have been doing OK (I assume all old folks are heavy bond holders) … it’s the people who’ve been faithfully buying stocks for the last decade who have nothing to show for it (except losses).

  14. bob said:

    yeah, and i thought i was getting a good price on oil for my retirement account a month ago :( fortunately, my daytrading’s doing fine, but i don’t even feel comfortable going short the stocks which have fallen a ton…

  15. C. Maoxian said:

    @bob: You were fighting the tape by going long oil. :-) It’s true that I still pay $3.35 a gallon here in China (they haven’t lowered their fixed prices, lol), and still sit in bumper to bumper traffic every day, so someone is making money.

  16. pete said:

    my parents and alot of their friedns have been ignoring the classic allocation of more bonds the older u get- they all made the bulk of their earnings during one of the greatest bulls runs of of the 21st centuries- the fact that PE’s dont matter during a recession blows their minds- that earnings guidance means nada- how could they cut earnings by 40% and and not see it 1yr ago. painful - oh my inheritance. u renting a 2nd bedroom in china?

  17. C. Maoxian said:

    @pete: Well if they’re 70 then they should be at least 70% in bonds, kind of a nice old rule, but no one follows it of course, humans being human.

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