To: Spytrdr who wrote (78524 ) 9/25/1999 6:31:00 PM From: GST Read Replies (1) | Respond to
Spy -- I don't know of anything in the history of the market that is like what is going on today -- perhaps Japan in 1989, except our US valuations are more extreme than they were in Japan. Please note, the Japanese market is still down 50% from its highs ten years later. Please note also that in Japan in 1989 the sentiment was so bullish that people said valuations did not matter -- the stock market would always go up. It did not matter if they dipped because this was just another buying opportunity. Individual investors swore they would never sell. As the market crumbled month after month over a period of a couple of years, they almost ALL sold. The ones that sold earliest did ok. The ones that waited had their finances crushed. What they did not have in stocks they had in real estate. It too dropped 80% on average -- devastating. In 1989 the Japanese would never have believed that land prices could ever go down and stay down -- impossible. But they did.
