Portfolio down a record 11.02%, Nasdaq down second worst 9.67%, Dow down 5.66%, S&P down 5.78%, Gilder down a record 12.2%, Meisler down a record 13.1%.
Top nine worst days on the Nasdaq.
10/19/87 -11.35 %
today -9.67
10/20/87 -9.00
10/26/87 -9.00
08/31/98 -8.56
04/03/00 -7.64
04/13/00 - 7.02
10/27/97 -7.02
03/27/80 -6.15
Year-to-Date
DJIA -10.4%
Nasdaq -18.4%
Nasdaq 100 -13.5%
S&P 500 -7.7%
S&P 400 -3.1%
Russell 2000 -10.1%
from briefing.com
Time to rustle up some cash for the portfolio. Been buying antiques and coins for over a year so spare cash will be going into the account by next Friday. Hope the market can stay down for a while until I get it in the brokerage account. So many bargains. Monday should be ugly as last wave of margin calls come through.
I called some old trading buds who were around in 1987. Couldn't really remember a good reason that it crashed then. Over valued stocks, potential recession, computerized sell programs, were some of the responses back then. All said it was surprising and unexpected then. What triggered the secondary collapse was buy and holders, and retired people just bailing out to go into bonds. Uncle M said that really hasn't happened yet. Look at 10/26/87. That's the second wave of bailing out. Uncle M reminded me that another 20% is possible for the Nasdaq. Never can time the bottom. Still in uncharted territory. Uncle M and I were at work and the broker hung up on him during the 1987 crash. 20% drop in a day. They wouldn't even answer the phone anymore for a few days. Today online trading further lenghthens the selling.
Dog stocks with no earnings will be the last place people will put the money back in. Commom theme as I revised the whole portfolio in March buying profitable leaders.
Called the folks who again reminded me that "Cash is King". They aren't buying any with their cash, just letting longs whither too. No fear, just time, and plenty of GE.
I remember vividly the mistake of selling out near the bottom and going into bonds in 1987. Market recovered almost all back in 18 months. Bonds earned 10% maybe in that time frame. Second mistake was not putting anymore into stocks at the bottom to catch the wave upward.
Looking at the carnage, EMLX dropped 49.74% on good (but not blowout news), everything red, except IWT.TO which was even.
Today was a historic day to cap a horrible week.
It's still not as bad as owning dogs in a hot market. Saturday will be a day at the banks closing all these cash accounts that I've saved for a rainy day and writing a check to Waterhouse. Will buy into the correction slowly unlike late March when all the biotech profits went into to stocks in two weeks.
No margin, no credit borrowing, just some savings.
Jack |
