The term "irrational exuberance" is best used in today's markets. Yes, please be very cautious. My feeling is that this is certainly not the best time to invest in the stock market, especially for new investors. Get ready for higher rates in savings accounts, CD's and similar products - something most people will be very happy about.

This is seriously the time to more cautious than ever as we saw collapse in Chinese economy then down fall of USD , anything can happen

I felt that the bottom was in for silver, and it just might be - but only time will tell. My feeling is that there may be another painful washout for those trying to pick the bottom. I decided to get out of yesterday's trade so quickly because all of the tapering panic, which sets the stage for this. Interest yields climbed their most today in several months, and the dollar rallied which is a negative for holding this.

My thesis is that silver being both a precious and industrial metal - should benefit from either a stronger economy (which we saw today in economic reports) and as an investment with it being priced at pre-recession levels in 2008. The dollar is up at 2005 and 2007 levels, which makes no sense to me, but it is what it is, at least for now.

As I stated earlier, I am buying a little bit of physical silver at these prices as a long term investment and safe-haven. I am confident that when it's time to pass it on to my kids, it was a wise decision based on the direction of our almighty dollar.

Also seeing some signs of DEFLATION... I feel that all commodities, including gold and silver will be hit especially hard. With stocks at record levels, home prices have only modestly improved. This will keep people from spending, along with a high unemployment rate, government cuts, and FED stimulus likely to stop. If this is true, the markets will fall dramatically, and we will likely be in a long bear market.

Personaly, I am out of stocks now. I think that the recent stress of it all from the recession pushed me out. I am young enough to put my savings at risk, with a plan for good returns, but would rather stay in guaranteed investments. I suppose it's because I have a rather large family for this generation, and need security. That's not to say I won't ever look back and have some regrets...

Yes, Apple was a bargain. Only history tells you so!!!

Funny how I did the exact same thing. Grabbed my stock value increases and ran. Oh, and paid taxes on the gains! Yeah, can't forget that. So, now I invested in real estate. Pricing seemed right. We shall see! As to buying Apple stock... I think with the loss of Steve Jobs there will be a bubble burst in the near future.

Personaly, I am out of stocks now. I think that the recent stress of it all from the recession pushed me out. I am young enough to put my savings at risk, with a plan for good returns, but would rather stay in guaranteed investments. I suppose it's because I have a rather large family for this generation, and need security. That's not to say I won't ever look back and have some regrets...

Yes, Apple was a bargain. Only history tells you so!!!

Haha, reading through this old thread. I tried to convincing my mom to buy $20k Apple stock in 2007, when it was just $97 per share. She nearly did it, perhaps I should've pushed her a bit harder? It's now $626! :

Apple is now valued at $265.8 billion, ahead of PetroChina's $265.5 billion. Making them the second largest company in the word, behind Exxon-Mobil which is valued at $313.3 billion.

If one wanted to start investing, how much cash would they need to start? Just curious.



By the way, Apple stock is hot stuff! Just step into any Apple store on a Saturday and you'll wish you owned stock. It couldn't be anymore crowded!

Frankly, I am in favor of reinventing the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 which prohibited any one institution from acting as any combination of an investment bank, a commercial bank, and an insurance company. It was designed to control speculation.

Very well said Wanderer.

Frankly, I am in favor of reinventing the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 which prohibited any one institution from acting as any combination of an investment bank, a commercial bank, and an insurance company. It was designed to control speculation.

We have seen the arrogance of those large institutions on Wall Street and their lack of care for the regular folks. In front of the US Congress they are afronted to even be there and to be questioned. Of course, they have millions of dollars and could care less about the people or the system.

GREED! This is what I see the whole Wall Street mess is about. We are NOT better off for it. I am afraid that enough life has passed by me that I see reforms and "...it will never happen again..." Yeah right!!!

Unfortunately history is blind and repeats itself!!! The "Depression" of the 1930's didn't occur to our present day folks??? Well my editorial is over

I think the problem is that investors lost trust in the entire system. From extremely bullish to a total meltdown in days. That smells funny to me as well.

If I was in their shoes, I'd also lose trust in the system. I'd think something fishy's going on if the change occur almost without warning. If something's going to turn bad or good, we gotta see some warning signs or a trend before seeing the effect, right?

Down, down, down. When does it stop? 1001 on the S&P 500 is starting to seem real. That's about another 2% down from the current opening level. We may see even more than that, but we are in an official correction area, and getting closer to a bear market once again.

Buying opportunity? It could be, but the truth is that most stocks and indexes have lost their 200 daily moving average and trendline support. Not good signs. 1044 on the S&P is the next critical support level. This number is different by a few points than what you see on CNBC and our homepage. So around 1048 on that number.

Be careful!

Hi Julienne,

I'm a programmer myself, and I can tell you that computer programs are only as smart as the programmer that wrote the code. There are certainly flaws in the system, a system that many investors are loosing faith in.

Computer programs use analytical data that they compute and execute steps based on that data. They lack the human gift of common sense and detailed knowledge of decision making. Yes, this was a situation that ran out of control, but I don't think that computers are to blame for all of it. I'm fairly confident that traders panicked when we broke our upper trend-line support level on the markets and caused a trigger of a massive wave of selling, a big domino effect. Look up "protective stop" for more information on that.

I really hope that new laws come out from this, and people learn from this in a big way.

What happened just proves that if there's not a lot of human interaction with the system, there will always be a time that it can get away -- out of control. I think that's one thing that can be expected with automation. Or is it?