The sky is falling!!

[riverbabe]

Good morning. Japan's Nikkei fell over 5% last night, and that's weighing on the market big time. European markets are also down. So the visual for you to have as you look at stocks is that you are standing in the rain. You are looking up at the sky and seeing the rain fall -- it is falling everywhere. To the left, all you can see is rain. To the right, all you can see is rain. Looking ahead and behind, all you can see is rain. You, however, are standing in a bus stop. So you aren't actually getting hit by the rain. You're comfortable. You see various people running across the street with newspapers over their heads, or umbrellas blowing and breaking in the strong wind. You want to leave the bus shelter and get to work, but the bus is obviously running late -- it's nowhere to be found. So you decide to brave the rain and walk to work. As you step out from beneath the bus stop, holding your hat on your head to keep it from getting blown off by the wind, you are startled! Something hit your hat! You step back into the bus shelter and take off your hat. It's got a rip in it. Almost as if someone sliced it with...a knife! You look at where you were standing and you see a sharp knife sticking in the ground, its handle still vibrating. You then look closely at the rain, squinting your eyes (you don't see so well in your old age), and looking across the street and in the park behind the bus stop. You are shocked to discover that there are knives everywhere -- sticking in the ground with handles still vibrating from the impact on the ground. OMG, it is raining falling knives! Falling knives???! "I must be dreaming...and I have no idea how to interpret this dream!" This is a nightmare! I'll never get to work...and besides that, it is really dangerous! All these people who are running around trying to get somewhere are getting hit with knives, and it's starting to look like a Stephen King novel. I feel bad for these hapless victims, but there is no way I'm going to leave this bus stop. Work can wait. I'm just going to sit in this shelter until it stops raining falling knives. And once it stops raining, then I'll probably walk around looking for the best knives and take them home. We could use a new knife set at home. My wife will be so happy. This storm of falling knives isn't as bad as I thought it was. So glad my iPhone is charged up. I think I'll tweet about it, and then read my iPad. Stay in the bus stop. --Dan NOT A MEMBER OF STOCK MARKET MENTOR? Absolutely NO RISK - 7 DAY FREE ACCESS follow on Twitter Copyright © 2011 Stock Market Mentor, All rights reserved.

[billyjoe]

River, Chesapeake was highly touted by some even last year. Luckily I bailed before it hit the fan.....with a modest loss.

----------------billy

[riverbabe]

CHK! WOW!!! Chesapeake Energy Plagued by Plunging Shares. Talk about SCARY!!! http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/09/bu...&nlid=47075250

[Lucavia123]

Ouch! That hurts!

[riverbabe]

Back into SPXU at 3:00 PM yesterday. Roller coaster. What fun!

The above from 8/26. Yesterday, SPXU +3.18%, SDOW +8.74%. Judging by the lower PM bids and asks, the market might get a short term boost at the open. Did not sell these yesterday. They are still small insurance policies against another big drop. Thinking about some SQQQ today.

[riverbabe]

As Paul Samuelson famously quipped in the late 1960s: “The stock market has called nine of the last five recessions.”

[riverbabe]

The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index slid 58.33 points, or 2.96 percent on Tuesday. Only three stocks in the S.&P. 500 rose, suggesting that the market could have further to drop, Peter Eavis and David Jolly write in DealBook.

[riverbabe]

Short term bot some SPXL and XIV yesterday with hope of a short(!) term bounce. Today up 7.19% and 6.56%, respectively. Also took 23%+ out of SPXU yesterday. It's little bits, but it's at least something. More downturn coming. Will keep hedging appropriately on daily basis.

Edit: Just sold SPXL and XIV to protect gains.

Back into SPXU at 3:00 PM yesterday. Roller coaster. What fun!

[Lucavia123]

Wow... what whiplash. This market is crazy. I knew the rally was weak but to end down 200 points.

Today is shaping up to be another wild ride.

[riverbabe]

Short term bot some SPXL and XIV yesterday with hope of a short(!) term bounce. Today up 7.19% and 6.56%, respectively. Also took 23%+ out of SPXU yesterday. It's little bits, but it's at least something. More downturn coming. Will keep hedging appropriately on daily basis.

Edit: Just sold SPXL and XIV to protect gains.

[Lucavia123]

Where's the beef?

Volume is low on this little bounce. Downside may not be over.

[jiesen]

Well, we can't say Louetta didn't warn us. At least LBMH is bucking the trend. Old folks still gonna need their catheters at any rate.

wow, LBMH is actually UP today!

[mimo_100]

VIXY triple top breakout today at 15 - high was 18.80 - just bot some at 14.50 for some downside protection. Also have an order in to buy SH at 21.51 - theory is to hedge my port and not sell holdings outright - these are very short term positions

[Louetta]

The sand is a great place to bury one's head. The only green on my screen is SPXU, an ultra-short of S&P 500 I bot yesterday, up 5.69%. Wish I had thousands of shares instead of a couple hundred. It's bloody out there.

Good call. On another note there is TBX, a Proshares short 7-10 year bond ETF, down 10%. What gives with that? Our interest rate stuff is barely down.

[billyjoe]

My biggest mistake was selling all my funds (that's all I had then) after Black Monday of Oct. 1987. It seems like a small amount of $$ now but those few thousand dollars was all I had. Had I held, when the market recovered I'm sure it made the difference of 100's of thousands of dollars that never came my way. The one day drop was equal to 22.61% of the DOW.

----------------billy