I currently own a few dozen dividend stocks, so I don’t speculate or gamble on my holdings. Instead I try to keep myself vested for cash flow, in which dripping steady dividends will empower it in the future.

It’s important to note though, that if you want a safe haven for your money, commodities is always the place to be. Stocks are volatile, and very risky, but that’s where the gains come in. When in doubt, look forwards to hedge yourself. Inside the market, buy options. Outside the market, commodities.

PATIENCE is key here. If you have the time to follow the markets closely then you can make some money in small caps, large caps during earnings, and options. That being said, withouth the stomach you need to stick with diversified Utilities with histories of dividend growth like EXC, SO, and FPL, and good staple stocks like JNJ, MCD, MO. If you want to be risker then run screens for undervalued small caps at finviz or use the research at microcapreports

The main drive to be in the markets is to make money and beyond that, the time frame at which you want to get in and out is individually set.

Personally, until Greece and more importantly, Spain is sorted out, markets will continue to peg lower since there are lingering jitters from the previous debacle of the housing markets and financial sectors.

Will this be the same? worse? who knows. Nobody has the magic 8-ball to predict the outcome…its all about your risk tolerance and ability to put emotions aside and make strategic trades.

Technically, the only reliable way to invest in stocks is to purchase the dividends. That is, you buy the stock without any intention to ever sell it. So the price of the stock becomes irrelevant after you purchase. Instead, you collect the dividends every year from solid, profitable companies.

That means you only value stocks by the P/E ratio to their dividends and your own confidence the company will continue to pay the dividends.

Stock certificates themselves have zero intrinsic value. In other words, it’s completely valid for them to go to a zero value even if they pay good dividends because other people may simply not want to purchase it now for any number of possible reasons.

Stocks are unlike commodities like which definately have intrinsic value and will never possibly go to zero. Someone will always be willing to purchase beef, O.J., oil, at some price–far more than zero.

A similur problem exists with currencies which are not backed by any thing of value other than confidence in the issuing country’s economy.

Once you buy dividends (not stocks) at a good price that will return on your investment over many years, who cares what the current price is? And who cares if the stock is volatile or has “flash crashes”?

Wayne

What technical indicator showed that those two companies (who are doing very well) are worthless?

If you can get away from the gov’t message cnbc and move to more independent financial advice shows, you would hear that there have been a number of key technical indicators predicting this move. In fact Tom Obrien of TFNN called this as recently as Wednesday on an interview with Woody Vincent – http://www.tfnn.com/interviews.

This crash is not a phenomenon of the current trading method, we have seen them before. So don’t write-off the market signs because it is convenient to blame modern technology. Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.

Example #1 was a computer algorithmic problem, and the second one is suspected to be a human problem.

As a network engineer, I go through the same debate between automating processes with scripts vs doing things by hand. You have some who insist they not use a script for fear of unintended consequences of the script, but then others who insist scripts are the way to go to reduce human error.

It’s all about what the human or the automated process is doing in this case. My issue with the microbuying is it appears to me be automated stock speculation. I don’t care how speculation is done, via human or machine, but it artificially drives prices up, which inevitably leads to market corrections.

If anything, the only common thread between these two issues was a consolidation of power between the automated processes which obviously operated with similar logic, and the person behind the order who fat fingered it.