"Stock's have to come back sometime"?

The stock market will likely go below 5000, while the price of gold will go past 2000, if not much higher due to hyper-inflation. I wouldn't be a buyer in this market. I do buy put options on banks. That's a "no-brainer". I plan to buy some in the money puts on COF, BAC and WFC this week.

To address your additional point, we are indeed in danger of seeing a military coup of the federal government. The financial interests that own our economy are the same that funded Hitler, Musolini, and the Russian and Chinese communists. The financial and royal oligarchy of the British Empire should be eliminated before this happens, in my opinion. I don't hear anyone else advocating violence, but these people won't quit until their families are destroyed.

You have an excellent point.

The price of a stock reflects many factors, which include the underlying soundness of the company, and the ability of it's management, the demand for the company's products, market share, competition, etc. . Another is the belief upon the part of investors that the stock will either continue to go up, or pay dividends, in the future...depending on how much the investor knows about what he or she is doing, this may be a rational belief or it may not be.

Over time, (and that is the key) stocks, on the average, tend to rise...unless the company goes bust. The key is "over time". I recall a story I read in a book I read about the stock market. One of the authors had been a stockbroker and when he was just getting started in his career, ( about 1967) he had a client walk in and say he wanted to sell some stock, I think it was RCA. The stockbroker was surprised, as the guy had had this stock for a long time. He asked the client why he wanted to sell. The client said "I've wanted to sell this $#% forever, but I made a promise to my wife that I wouldn't sell it for less than I bought it for, and today it finally hit that price and I want to sell it."

The guy had bought the stock just before the crash in 1929. So yes, the stock DID come back....it just took it 38 years to do so.

The question isn't so much "will my stocks come back"? Unless the company goes bankrupt (and several may do just that, GM, or several of the banks for example) the stock should eventually get back to what you sold it for once economic growth resumes. However if you are still alive at that time, and if it will do you any good, is a different question.

They don't have to do anything. Historically stocks have tended to move up as the economy grew, profits grew, people became more affluent and allocated more funds to risky assets like stocks etc.

Even if we assume that stocks do "have to come back" then the question of timing still remains. If you invest now and the market drops another 50%, then in order to just break even and recover your loss the market has to go up 100%.

Market timing is extremely difficult even for the pros so definitely not a game for amateur / part time investors.

If you're wondering whether now is a good time to buy stocks or not - well no one can tell you for sure. There's a risk involved. I would recommend seeking professional financial planning advisory to determine on the most appropriate asset allocation for your situation.

Because if they don't we won't have a strong economy (like now) and nobody will spend money and nobody will hire employees. It will be a recession. If Obama would just quit talking for a few weeks the stock market may go up.

Sorry but it's true.

Really no, they don't HAVE to.....

The market could just crash & burn and not be reconstituted within my life-time.

oops!

whatever