The Market Always Likes Going Up

It's really true. The market enjoys upward trends and abhors downward trends. No real economic data came out today to support such a market bump, but it occurred anyway. This is why buying on lows (bargain hunting) is a rule of mine, and a rule that many investors follow.

The tough part is trying to find the right time to buy during an upward trend time, or mixed weeks, such as this week.

My suggestion? Stay out until the end of November. The markets are extremely volatile, and if you aren't in already, wait it out.

Shitty Citi

Why oh why! Citi was supposed to fire Chuck and call it a day. That would have propelled the stock upward.

Instead, they went with a bloodbath, and bam, the market tanks, Citi stock tanks, and the whole world has decided to be in worry mode.

My hope? The market loses some fear, and people realize how good of a deal Citi is now.

Unbelievable day in the market!

So I suppose there was one scenario I should have offered up yesterday, that both crazy up and crazy down would occur, which would cause the market to fluctuate back and forth all day, ending in the green across the board.

Two big pieces of news came out of today:

(1) Citigroup's CEO Chuck Prince is expected to resign Sunday! This should result in a nice bump for the stock, considering so many people have thought most of Citi's problems have been Prince's leadership.

(2) Merril Lynch has been engaging in some shady off-balance sheet deals with hedge funds to put off losses to a different time. This resulted in a 7.9% drop today, and most likely continued losses next week.

Morning update

Pre-market looks green, but only barely, so its a tough call. Can still go either way.

There is no fury like a stock market scorned

Wow! Just WOW!

Today was one of those days that as soon as I woke up and stubbed my toe, I knew it would not be a great day. Throughout the morning, bad news was coming left and right.

First it was Citigroup. Analysts from CIBC downgraded Citigroup, citing fears about continued fallout from the subprime mess caused the big C to tumble 6.58% or loss about $14 BILLION in market cap. This also prompted concerns across the entire banking sector.

Then, Exxon Mobile reported a 10% decline in profits.

Throughout the day, the market fell like a concrete airplane filled with concrete little people all hoping to get on the ground as fast as possible.

And on top of that, CVS announced a great quarter and its stock price still plummeted 1.5%.

So, what will happen tomorrow? There are really two possibilities I can think of:

(1) The market will stay in its death spiral, feeding off of today's loss and the Asian markets reactionary drop to continue falling.

(2) After one of the biggest losses in the Dow in months, bargain hunters see an excellent opportunity to buy in.

Option (2) is definitely very optimistic, but barring any good economic news, i think the chances are 70/30 for option (1).