Stock Exchange Record Setting Downturn

Today the New York Stock Exchange had a record setting day… in a very bad way. Without warning and in a period spanning just one minute, the market lost a combined $60 Billion in just the top 30 blue chip companies. That’s with a “B” folks.

The Associated Press said the following:

Stocks Have Worst Day Since 9/11 Attacks: Dow Down 416, Nasdaq Drop 97 on Global Market Plunge

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks had their worst day of trading since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks Tuesday, hurtling the Dow Jones industrials down more than 400 points on a worldwide tide of concern that the U.S. and Chinese economies are stumbling and that share prices have become overinflated.

The steepness of the market’s drop, as well as its global breadth, signaled a possible correction after a long period of stable and steadily rising stock markets that had not been shaken by such a volatile day of trading in several years.

There are a few factors which allegedly contributed to this decline; concerns about China’s economy, a glitch in the computers that run the NYSE, an attack against VP Cheney… and probably the way the moon was aligned with Venus. But none of that really matters. What does matter is that a lot of people lost their asses today, many of whom shouldn’t have.

Any time a market takes a nose dive like this investors get hurt. But the question is ‘to what degree?’ So, I’d just like to take this opportunity to remind people of two of my previous posts:

• Eggs and the Proverbial Retirement Basket – an informed look at how to ensure your portfolio has real diversity, in which I said:
  

  Nitroglycerin is volatile. So are markets, all markets. Always have been, always will be. In 2000 the stock market took a nose dive, just as it has, on average, every 7 years since they opened the doors of the NYSE.

• How to Choose an Investment Advisor – in which I elucidate on the methodology to ensure success in finding someone you can trust.

The rest is up to you.