A 1000 point swing is so totally nutz ..... it HAS to mean the bottom .... I hope.

[Stinky The Clown]

It closed off haffa hundred or so. But wow. Hopefully this wild day means the buyers are back, the short sellers did some mischief, and then the sane heads saw that it was time for rational buying again.

I am either right or I am putting lipstick on a pig.

[livetohike]

1. Keeping my fingers crossed that this is the end of it

and the overseas stocks bounce back next week....

[closeupready]

2. I don't think so. High volatility is bad for the market.

Meaning things are likely to continue worsening.

[ixion]

3. my personal opinion is money pumped into the market by the Fed

I don't believe this is the bottom. Nothing has been fixed yet. In fact, the more money the Fed pumps into it, the worse it gets.

[Selatius]

4. Plunge Protection Team probably propped this up today. nt

[phantom power]

5. I've got my fingers crossed, but in the back of my mind...

I keep thinking about how the market actually declined during the Great Depression. There was the famous crash of 1929, but then there was a more gradual, but crushing decline over the next few years, where it lay on the bottom more or less until WWII.

Really, beats me. History rhymes, but it doesn't repeat itself.

[The Magistrate]

6. It Has Gotten Down To Territory That Looks Cheap, Sir

The bottom feeders are out in force.

My guess, speaking strictly as a gambler, is that the thing will take a run down towards seven thousand five hundred every day next week, chargung down in the morning, and reversing field in the afternoon. People fearing they will not get a better price soon will be closing out in the A.M., and people looking for bargains will move in in the P.M.

Which group is more numerous will determine whether the fall is stemmed or not.

But of course, there is a reason they make the horses actually run all the way around the track before money changes hands....

[Sal Minella]

9. Do you say 7,500 because that's half of the peak a year ago?

Is this like, How far can you walk into the woods?
Only halfway -- after that you're walking out of the woods.
?

[Stinky The Clown]

10. That's only another 10% drop ......

Not hard to imagine.

[The Magistrate]

12. It Just Seems Like A Nice Round Number, Ma'am

Markets are mobs; mobs are simple-minded.

That really is about all there is to it, in my view.

The details are good to know, especially when the things are working properly, but they are not the story, and not the explanation of behavior; that rests in crowd psychology, and of the most jaundiced sort to boot.

"The IQ of a mob is equal to the square root of the IQ of its stupidest member."

[closeupready]

7. It's easy for forget that the people you pass on the way to work, in the car next to yours, wherever

have in some cases lost hundreds of thousands of dollars this past week. I personally know four such people. And I can think of others I know who are in the market who have probably lost tens of thousands.

So I don't know what that means in terms of a bottom, except that they will probably not be in the mood to take many risks anytime soon. Institutional investors are different, of course, but it all adds up.

[WeDidIt]

8. I put in an order on my 401K today

It's set to hit when the markets open Monday. I've been very heavy in Mutual Funds, Bonds, Overseas Investments, and a Cash position.

Putting it all in blue chips on Monday.

[Critters2]

11. Aren't markets closed Monday. Columbus Day? nt

[WeDidIt]

14. D'oh, it'll happen Tuesday morning then

NExt time the markets open.

[UK populist]

13. The problem is there whichever way the NYSE goes

It is all about the CDS'S (credit default swaps) they are going to explode whatever happens because there has already been too many collapses.