![\"Wrestling\"](\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Wrestling.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nAt that point, the Dow was 17,373. It’s now 16,826.<\/p>\n
At that time, I said these were bad:<\/p>\n
+ Slowing China’s economy and the drop in the Shanghai stock market. At one stage the Chinese were huge buyers of real estate in Western Canada, California and New York.<\/p>\n
+ The precipitous drop in commodities prices. Oil. Coal. Copper. Gold. Iron ore. Nickel. I could fill a book showing awful charts.<\/p>\n
+ When commodities prices fall, lots of awful things happen — including a default on bonds (15% of junk bonds are energy related), bankruptcies of producers (several coal producers have already gone Chapter 11). When one quadrant of our economy suffers, the other quadrants no longer enjoy their excess monies.<\/p>\n
+ Erstwhile fast-growing economies are now in big trouble. Check out the the ETFs of Brazil (EWZ), South Korea (EWY), Malaysia (EWM) and Russia (RSX).<\/p>\n
These haven’t changed. If anything, the perception of them has become more widespread. Perhaps the biggest change is that investors are less enamored with the “hot” stocks — like\u00a0 Netflix, Amazon, Google, Apple, CyberArk, Facebook, etc.<\/p>\n
Today has opened another 1% down on the Dow and a big 1.75% down on Nasdaq, home to erstwhile hot stocks.<\/p>\n
This market is effectively wiping out all my gains of the past several years. It’s brutal. My only two holdings up today are CRM (Salesforce) and SGOL (gold). But more seem to be edging back from the abyss.<\/p>\n
I can’t predict where it’s going. Nor can I tell my readers what to do — except, follow our inviolate Stock Loss rule.<\/p>\n
One of my biggest loser in recent day s has been BX — Blackstone — a superb money manager, now sporting a yield of nearly 13%. The market is telling me its earnings are in jeopardy. Ditto for the dividend.<\/p>\n
Will this selling pass? Will we watch it bounce back? Look at these charts of the S&P, Nasdaq and Dow over the last year:<\/p>\n You’ll see we were here (i.e. in the toilet) towards the end of last year. It bounced back. Will it do the same thing? Maybe? Probably. Certainly eventually.<\/p>\n Should we be buying now in anticipation of a bounceback? Should we be selling in anticipation of more pain?<\/p>\n Or should we do nothing?<\/p>\n Some friends were buying yesterday. Others are playing tennis.<\/p>\n Personally I’m loosening up — especially on my hot stocks. I sold CYBR this morning. It got a great upgrade yesterday. But it’s still down nearly 5% this morning, and my stop loss kicked in.<\/p>\n What worries me a bit are “safe” stocks like Berkshire Hathaway:<\/p>\n It’s down nearly 10% this year. I’ve already lightened up on my BRKA holdings.<\/p>\n The “good” news this morning is that the market is bouncing off its early lows. And now my CRM, AMGN, SGOL, IBB, FL, INVT, and HOTR are actually up.<\/p>\n The weather in Bend, Oregon is gorgeous. We took Eleanor to a great playground and got to talk to all the other grandfathers doing the same thing with their grandchildren.<\/p>\n Life in areas that count — family — is great. Here’s Eleanor and her crazy grandfather (i.e. me) on our way for a bike ride to breakfast.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
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