Get a grip! The markets are a little nutso. Don’t you go there, too

Washington Post ^ | 08/26/2015 | Allan Sloan

[SeekAndFind]

If you want to understand what’s going on in the stock market and what you should do with your own investments, don’t assume the past three trading days have been rational. And don’t talk about a market “correction.” Doing that will rot your brain.

And don’t panic. Although this is an ugly market, this isn’t anything like the 2008-09 meltdown that wiped out millions of homeowners’ equity and put the world’s financial markets at risk. This is a stock market decline that, as we’ll see in a bit, has a serious impact on only a relatively small number of Americans.

Even though I’ve taken substantial losses lately, I had to laugh at Monday’s market because it was so absurd. The Dow industrials were down more than 1,000 points shortly after the market opened, then roller-coastered up about 900 points, then lurched around and plunged, ending down 588 points.

This is rational? Not to me, it’s not. And it shouldn’t be to you, either. It’s a stampede, with the herd spooked by fallout created by the inability of the Chinese government to continue manipulating its financial markets, stampeding to dump U.S. stocks shortly after the 9:30 market opening. Then stampeding to buy them. Then dumping them again.

And please don’t forget that most of the trading in U.S. stocks these days is by computers playing games with each other, not investors making decisions. So no matter what rationalizations supposed experts offer, on a day like this stocks go up because they’re going up, then go down because they’re going down.

Another good laugh I had, through my tears of financial pain, was seeing the 10-year Treasury note called a “safe haven.” Give me a break. The only thing safe about it is that the U.S. government won’t default on dollar-denominated Treasury

[Opinionated Blowhard]

don’t assume the past three trading days have been rational

Everything is OK. Calm down! Stop! LOL.

This sell of is the most rational thing the market has done in a while. The economy is in the toilet, our debt burden is crushing, the economic future is bleak and now the world economy is tanking too.

[T-Bone Texan]

I know it sounds crazy, but my first instinct was to go buy staple foods and OTC meds like children’s Advil and the like so my family does not suffer.

It was fear-based behavior, I admit.

I come from poverty. I don’t want to go back there.

[Texas resident]

This comes from the Washington Post.
If a repub was in the white house, it would be Armageddon.

[jwalsh07]

Summary: Market is rational when it goes straight up. Irrational when it decline s. Nobody gives a crap anyway because relatively few of us have enough money in the equity market to feel the irrational ity.

[Safrguns]

Y’all aint seen nothin yet.

The middle of September is when this house of cards really falls.

[aimhigh]

Buy low, sell high. This is the best time to buy (assuming we’re close to the bottom).