Your last activity of 11/7/2010 depress me.

Buzzcut for the win... :)

Click the "View Conversation" link.

That convo was right after what appeared to be the "Death of 3DR" announcement, and I'd joked about tagging some thread about tags with "Enigmahood blows cattle". At that point I (and presumably many others) assumed the 3DR forums would be shutting down.

Heck, Wikipedia at that point said "3DR *was* a game developer..."

Glad you're still here. :)

Looking at 52 week lows, I just don't see how some stocks can go lower without the finance industry going completely bankrupt, which would be impossible unless this whole nation goes bankrupt with it. Nationalization is out of question, of course.

I CANNOT take another one or two years of this recession bullshit. That's why I'm so optimistic with my late 2009 predictions. Call it wishful thinking, but I miss the days where I only had to be depressed about non-financial related matters. :(

When we get to the point of crossing from pain to slow growth, stocks will really take off. As the stock market looks ahead, there will probably be some more false starts before we take off for real. I'd like to see another test of the 1997 low, followed by tests of the November 2008 low, to know that we've really confirmed a bottom.

If you're right, and we've already bottomed, my IRA will probably double in a year, and the sky would be the limit after that.

That's what ppl were saying during the Thanksgiving-New Year's rally as well, but we eventually slid way down until we hit the 1997 low.

Our economy ran on the back of housing from 2000-2006. As banks will now require 10-25% down payments for mortgages, that translates into $50-$125K down for a $500K house. As interest rates have punished savers and rewarded borrowers since 1992, I don't see very many ppl coming up with that kind of money. As such, housing will continue to go down, putting more ppl underwater, and causing more foreclosures.

In the long run, this will force ppl to live within their means, but I see another year or two of pain, followed by several years of slow growth, before we see any kind of big expansion. As this was a once-in-a-lifetime crisis, I hope ppl learn from it, and that we can have sustainable growth going forward.

I think the Dow hit rock bottom last week. It's uphill from now on.

My personal prediction/opinion is that the business cycle will move towards a recovery by December 2009 and this recession will not get any closer to a trough than it already is.

Stocks are always leading indicators and we're already beginning to see a climb. I was reading a Wallstreet Journal article that confirmed my thoughts. We were in the 6000s up until last week and now we're climbing and climbing into the 7000s again. I'm just really focused on the Dow but I think the other indexes are following the same trends too.

The last two days of this week weren't that great, but I think the level of volatility we're experiencing is necessary. I wouldn't want to see it keep going up without any bumps along the way. That wouldn't be natural.

There was a lot of profit-taking today. In an up market, I watch for such days to buy at a discount.

I made about $22K worth of trades (usually $500 each) and lost $4.5K for 2008. My trading losses and expenses will bring me a $1-2K tax refund, so I'll get some of that back.