Stock Market Panic!?

[InTheBum]

Just curious if anyone has taken part in the equity sell off over the last few days...?

I only sold about 3%....

My current position is 70 fixed income and 30% equities. Even with this conservative mix, I took a decent hit over the last week.



Do you expect a big slide next week? Panic was setting in world wide...so it seems...

 

[87112]

I sold everything last year and went all cash when the Dow hit 11k, been rooting for the Dow go down very very down so I can get back.

Buy and Hold no longer works, you got to have guts to time the market.

 

[threepeat]

I took a pretty big hit, so I got mad and went double-long the VIX and made my money back in an afternoon . Definitely NOT recommended, but at least it worked out lol.

I very likely will go single-long the VIX on Monday.

 

[storm rider]

My holdings are down but I have not sold a thing...same story as with the 2008 meltdown....I rode that out and I will ride this out.....this time I do have 10 grand in liquid cash for this buying opportunity.....I will see what the markets do on Monday and pull the trigger Tuesday.

You never sell due to panic or in a downturn....you ride it out.....if you are within 3 years of retirement you should not be invested in volatile securities.

SR

 

[joho]

Since I am a young guy with a secure job and good health, I always look for a long term investment in stable companies. As long as you diversify your investment, your future will be bright.

 

[microbru]

Back in May, I sold half (being the pussy I am) of my blue chip (quality) equities and ALL of my riskier equities.
In the coming weeks I think we'll see some really good buy opportunities on quality companies at historically low P/E valuations.
I like oil but expect it to get worse before it gets better. I'm not a big fan of gold but some of my colleagues swear by it.
Recession or not, people still have to eat, drive, run their laundry, the list goes on.

 

[InTheBum]

I took a pretty big hit, so I got mad and went double-long the VIX and made my money back in an afternoon . Definitely NOT recommended, but at least it worked out lol.

I very likely will go single-long the VIX on Monday.

What is the Ticker symbol for the VIX? I can't recall...

Sounds like a good trade to me...

 

[Ned Flanders]

My portfolio is down 7-8% on paper, but I am a buy and hold type, and all my companies are solid, have good earnings, and still pay nice dividends. Last week I bought a bunch more equities, which suggests my ability to time the market is not that great. In any event, I suspect this will reverse itself at some point. There are some pretty good buying opportunities now.

 

[kman86]

I'm looking to buy hou.to depending in the oil report on Wednesday what's your guys thoughts on oil price?

 

[Monet]

expect a slide Monday...mutual funds aren't any good at this point...may take a while to recover....

Just curious if anyone has taken part in the equity sell off over the last few days...?

I only sold about 3%....

My current position is 70 fixed income and 30% equities. Even with this conservative mix, I took a decent hit over the last week.



Do you expect a big slide next week? Panic was setting in world wide...so it seems...

 

[ReluctantPooner]

Middle East exchanges were down 7% before trading was halted. Asian exchanges are down so far tonight as well. Could be interesting tomorrow. Thankfully, I have absolutely nothing in the stock market right now. If I had more cash available, I'd be looking at buying over the next few days.

 

[Monet]

what kind of stocks are you looking to buy?

Middle East exchanges were down 7% before trading was halted. Asian exchanges are down so far tonight as well. Could be interesting tomorrow. Thankfully, I have absolutely nothing in the stock market right now. If I had more cash available, I'd be looking at buying over the next few days.

 

[storm rider]

My instincts said "buy" so I pulled the trigger tonight as the stock I wanted rallied by 4% on friday when the rest of the market dived.....it is a dividend paying stock that has a 5% DRIP.....1000 shares at just a bit over the 52 week low.

SR

 

[InTheBum]

My instincts said "buy" so I pulled the trigger tonight as the stock I wanted rallied by 4% on friday when the rest of the market dived.....it is a dividend paying stock that has a 5% DRIP.....1000 shares at just a bit over the 52 week low.

SR

Is this stock on the TSX?

 

[threepeat]

What is the Ticker symbol for the VIX? I can't recall...

Sounds like a good trade to me...

Just to add my $0.02 to al's comment, the VIX is the Volatility Index, which basically measures the amount of fear in the stock market.

You can trade the VIX through the Horizon BetaPro Funds (www.horizonsetfs.com). The particular tickers are:
* HUV: moves up (or down) 1:1 with the VIX
* HVU: moves up (or down) 2:1 with the VIX

I should stress that the VIX moves up and down pretty fast, so the double-leveraged HVU moves *very* fast. So much so that it's pretty much just the same as gambling lol.

So that's how I made my money back on Thursday and a further 10% on Friday. But risk capital only, cause you can lose it just as fast.

 

[joho]

Now Asian markets are crashing too. TSX will be rough this week!

 

[Monet]

Many Thanks alinburnaby! Thanks for threepeat's heads-up as well.

Just because I thought a few people might like to know the answer and how the volatility indexes work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VIX
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IVX

They are traded here

http://www.cboe.com/micro/IndexSites.aspx

DJX is predicting the Dow to be at 11,200 on Monday open

 

[westcoast555]

I dont play the regular active " buy n sell " bullshit!! Retirement, for me, is many many years away and I've accumulated a very decent amount in my RRSP's, just by always having cash available and buying when dips like this occur.

In fact, I love sell offs like this but I will say....... I've dumped almost all of my US equity holding in my RRSP's several years ago ( I'm glad I did )...and I've had everything in Canada.

Remember....Canadian companies are healthy and good companies always....always come back :thumb:!!!!

We will get hit in some fashion no doubt, but Canada is solid and our problem are nowhere near what the U.S has! I fact, our market has outperformed the U.S market the last decade :thumb::nod:!

We have what the world needs and I have alot of confidence in Canada!


PS....I hope one thing going forward happens now because of this U.S mess......and that is Canada starts to expand its resource deals with China, India and South America!! They have to start dealing outside the States alot more IMHO.

That's the decision I made a few years ago too... my equities are in smaller cap Canadian and some blue chip. I'm not looking to cash out any time soon either - I think we have a few good years left selling resources to China and the rest of the world as well as the US. I expect our stuff to get dragged down a bit by the US vortex but it's not our currency or credit rating that just got smashed - it's the US. They need to stop fucking around and get their financial house in order. The rating drop is a message to the clowns that the party is over and they better get on with it. It is still all a bit scary though

 

[ReluctantPooner]

what kind of stocks are you looking to buy?

Well, as I don't have the cash, I haven't been looking!! Although, I would actually buy shares in my employer. They are down ~$10 from where they were a couple of weeks ago, but are projected to be at ~$5 above where they were at that time. They have one of the best outlooks in our industry, and lets just say it's an industry that everyone needs/uses.
Of course, I wish I bought some 2.5 years ago when they were at about 13% of where they are today, and I had a little under $10,000 to invest:doh:

 

[InTheBum]

Well, as I don't have the cash, I haven't been looking!! Although, I would actually buy shares in my employer. They are down ~$10 from where they were a couple of weeks ago, but are projected to be at ~$5 above where they were at that time. They have one of the best outlooks in our industry, and lets just say it's an industry that everyone needs/uses.
Of course, I wish I bought some 2.5 years ago when they were at about 13% of where they are today, and I had a little under $10,000 to invest:doh:

Sounds like Tech Cominco...if I had to guess...

I know they have a head office in Vancouver.