The Stock Market Crash of 2008?

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Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 3:46 am

Bad news all 'round in the financial sector yesterday.....not completely unexpected mind; banks and independent financiers lending to unqualified borrowers, re-financing and credit offered with no evidence of ability to repay.

It was a train-wreck waiting to happen.

Fortunately, I live in the same hovel..oops, flat I've had for ages, so my repayments are manageable, but I have an investment account I'm certain will lose money Rolling Eyes

Anyone else expected to be affected by the market at this uncertain time?

On a 419 note, it might explain why two quiet lads have resurfaced today with vigor suggesting I need to go to WU immediately (before the foreign markets open in the morning) to send money.

Mrs 4br4m even kept her kiddies waiting at home in Rome so she could help me make a payment arrangement before morning.....

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 3:48 am

ASX200 (Aussie share market) has not dropped this much in one day since September 11. Sad

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 4:14 am

I have lost a lot (to me) because of this 'crash', but I'm young. So what. The way I look at it is that it's a great time to buy.

The media likes to make a lot of hype about things. Yeah, it sucks. But the market will eventually correct itself. That is, if the politicians will just leave it be. On a good note, the interest rates have dropped quite a bit on home mortgages. I'm thinking of refinancing down to 4.75%. That's a great rate.

Elite Baiter Joined: 02 Jul 2006 Posts: 1702

I made 12 pence yesterday because of the fiasco.

1000 GBP -> USD -> JPN Y -> GBP = �1000.12 (including fees)

ok 12 pence is virtually nothing but i still made a profit during a crash lol.

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:40 pm

^^^ So you're profiteering then, expanding your wealth on other peoples misery? Laughing

Only kidding, nobody start ranting at me... Embarassed

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:46 pm

Jojo:

Good point about the mortgage rates. I am at 5.6%, but if I can cut another 1% off it would make sense to refinance. I'll have to check rates out. Keeping that 15 year fixed rate mortgage though.... none of this adjustable crap.

As for the market going down, invest for the long term. This is a great time to buy. It will come back up. If you are older you should have more of your portfolio in bonds. The younger you are the more you should have in stock because you have time to wait it out.

If the market does not come back you will have a hell of a lot more to worry about than the money you lost in the crash.

The US market opened down 500 points, but came back to only be down about 150 points. The rate cut did the trick short term. Still too early to tell what is going on long term.

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 12:53 pm

The rate cut led to a 4% increase in AXS200 so thats just a 3% loss now. Smile

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 1:11 pm

im looking at it like this because of all the morgage loan defalts there is a lot of foreclosed houses out there.. and a lot of them are selling cheap i going to be looking to by one for my wife and i and im the kind of person that when i buy something .. i keep it forever . none of this buy a house and seel it 3-5 years later to turn a profit and sink it into a bigger house. i going to find what we like . buy it on a 30 year fixed. live in it forever, since we will live in it for the rest of our lives i dont mind paying for 30 years the that patment will be a lot lower than rent for something simalor and i will biuld equity up so if i do need money and the market looks right i could always take out a home equity loan

[EDIT] i must be having a stoke, im spelling is worst than nornal

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 7103 Location: Yes

I'm just about to do a two-story addition on my house. The good news is that the contractors are falling over themselves to do the work (2 years ago I would have been on a wait list). In addition, when I end up re-financing after the construction is done, my interest rate will actually be lower than it is now, which was not the case when I began investigating this project 7 months ago.

The bad news is the cash I had stocked away in mutual funds was dropping like a stone, so I had to get it out and into my safe 2% savings account. Cool

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 1:42 pm

It's definitely a great time to buy, not only foreclosures but just about any property, because home sales in general are so low. When I sold my home up north in 2002 I had offers and counter offers from two potential buyers bidding against each other and eventually sold it for 1/4 more than my asking price. With the housing market so flat right now my stepdaughter's house has been sitting for 8 months with not one offer and it's a nice house with a discounted price. Good luck in your search packman.

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 1:47 pm

This has been coming for a good six months at least. Growth's been way too rapid the past few years and now we get the adjustment.

We can all be happy the housing market didn't explode into little burning cinders though! There were some DIRE predictions out there, at least it let down (sort of) gently. Though I suppose in the end it ends up in the same place.

Master Baiter Joined: 23 Dec 2007 Posts: 126

I'm always suprised how easy it is to crash the market. As soon as something is wrong everybody yells that it's going wrong, because of it more people get rid of stock and with that make matters only worse. Sometimes the stock market is just one big self fullfilling prophecy.

It kinda annoys me that we as Europe pay financially for the mistakes America makes. After all, most of our banks are known for their solid *bit conservative* way of doing business. Luckily that means we have a pretty good change of getting out of this without too much damage.
Don't know if it's the same for the US though Confused

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 2:39 pm

@jmrazor...

RE: mutual fund account....aye, there's the rub.

Even though I know the economy will bounce back, it hurts to see money piss off, dunnit? Laughing

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 2:44 pm

I've noticed that the quality of furniture I'm getting in for repair is better than it has been for a while. This end of the market has been in the doldrums for a few years.
Not that it's any great long term indicator, but money rushes to quality when tough times are thought to be ahead.

Most of the work I get is things that have been bought in auction, so its looking like money is going out of the (not trusted) banks, and into art.
I've seen this same pattern prior to the two previous recessions I've lived through.

Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 3:37 pm

@leeuwen:

There's an interesting article in popular science this month about markets and the investor's 'herd mentality'; why we all always make the wrong decisions all at the same time.

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 2:45 am

The market has been crashing for the last two months. You just noticed? At least the US market; I don't follow the others.

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 2:54 am

...we may have noticed it DrWho but it only caught up with us this week Laughing

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 3:24 am

Hence all the action taken by the Fed of course! Stifled under all of Bernake's rate cuts! Far too many for my tastes. Now we've got a poor market AND a surge of inflation.

Ah well. At least it ended today on a high note. A very high note! Very Happy

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 5:02 am

Yeah, the US market has been up and down..my 401k has been taking a beating lately.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 17 Jan 2008 Posts: 54

My wife was a loan underwriter for a mortgage lender. When the US housing market took a dump, she got laid off (along with thousands of others in her field). The job market is saturated with all these laid off Lending employees trying for the same jobs. She now brings in about 30 percent of the income she use to. It took awhile to get used the shock of losing all that money every month. Everythings all good though. Except for negative equity in a home you just bought Crying or Very sad

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 6:17 am

If you can't ride this stuff out you shouldn't be in the market.

just like housing, there's probably some good opportunities out there.

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 3:50 pm

leeuwen wrote:

It kinda annoys me that we as Europe pay financially for the mistakes America makes. After all, most of our banks are known for their solid *bit conservative* way of doing business. Luckily that means we have a pretty good change of getting out of this without too much damage.
Don't know if it's the same for the US though Confused

That's just a funny statement to me. The good thing is that lenders are allowed to do stupid things. But they have to pay for it in the end. They can make their stupid decisions without someone telling them that they cannot. That's not to say that there are not consequences for it though.

Do you really think that the US market is not going to recover? Basically, there was a lot of artificial inflation with the housing market. There was no reason for the prices of homes to go up like they did. They just did because of the hype. Now we are seeing adjustment. It's nothing to freak about. The market will correct, provided the government doesn't step in and put floors on stocks and try to regulate it.

The point of being in the market is long term investing. It is very foolish/unsafe to do so short term, with hopes of getting rich quick. If you can deal with the risk, then go for it. Sure, people have gotten rich quickly. Lots of day traders did it in the 90s. But you sure don't hear much of day trading anymore. I would venture to say a lot more people lost their shirts because of that mentality. Same goes with the housing market. A lot of people made out well in the last few years. But there are more people stuck with adjustable rate mortgages, balloons, negative amortization loans, interest only loans, etc. that are losing out now. Fixed rate mortgages are the way to go- 15 years if possible. Now, they are paying the price for it.

Again, if you continue your investing, even when the market is low, you are purchasing at cheaper prices. All those who just sold all of their funds really did the worst thing they could do.

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Dec 2005 Posts: 3551

I agree with what Jojo said, and would add that it is wise for one to review percentages one has in each sector at least yearly. I did that about three months ago with the current economy in mind, and I am not going to worry about it.

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 4:23 pm

I don't give a shit about any of this as long as the value of the trunk box that M.Abacha is sending me isn't affected.

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 4:36 pm

It's stories like THIS that do more harm to the credibility of world markets than any real or perceived worries about impending recession.

If you save, have a pension or mortgage, you are handing over your money to men in suits to go down to the bookies and gamble with it.

I don't trust any of them.

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