The market seems to be selling-off on the back of limited bad news imo, apart from the dollar that is.

If you can hold your nerve and apart from any short term requirements to offload poor performing stocks, I have a couple!!, my advice would be sit tight. This does not have the feel of the tech(mining!) bubble at all. Difference being there are a lot of good fundamentals, unlike in 2000 when there were a lot of over rated nothing companies.

closed it .... made back a crumb ... better than nowt

I was reading Peter Lynch's book the other night - the opening chapter was talking about the '87 crash - is this the biggest one day fall since then? (I'm excluding 9/11 from this)

Steve

Found the answer to my own question:

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has closed with a loss of 500 points or more only five times in its history, according to data from Dow Jones Indexes. The biggest one-day point drop of 684.8 points took place on Sept. 17, 2001. The index fell 618 points on April 14, 2000 and 554 points on Oct. 27, 1997. It shed 512.6 points on Aug 31, 1998 and 508 points on Oct. 19, 1987. At last check on Tuesday, the index has fallen 379 points at 12,253. At one point, it was down 546 points shortly after 3 p.m. With a current loss of 3%, however, the Dow Jones Industrial Average won't even crack the top 20 in terms of one-day percentage losses. The 20th worst percentage loss for the index took place on Jan. 8, 1988 when it fell 6.85% or 141 points.

only down about 360 in the end i think, but FTSE forecast to open down 120, so goodness knows what will happen then

It means a very good day to BUY into BARGAINS!

it means a perfect day to do nothing as there are no guarantees that tomorrow will not also be a bad day - i.e. even worse than at opening

or a very good day for a buying opportunity

IMO, never try and catch falling knives - been there, done that and got burnt!

Steve

It was a hot knife :)

Not always...if you bought stocks during 9/11, you will be laughing like a hyena now.

it's just that judging one's timing is so very difficult in times like this, for there will certainly be a lot of positions forced shut

closed down just over 400 points and dow futures already another 40 points down, FTSE being called down 130 at the mo

It is just riding the storm...there is no major disaster precipitating it...it is just nerves or self-perpetuating fear.

Did you ever see a 100 point drop in one tick before?

Could you tell me where you u got this information? Which website?

I suppose we all need beta-blockers.

As I type this, my broker (IG Markets) is showing Dow down another 62 points at 12143-12149. FTSE is down 126 at 6158-6163.

Steve

Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist with Standard & Poor's Equity Research, added that the market was long overdue for a drop like the one seen Tuesday.

"Corrections hurt. But this is not something investors should get too worried about. The market has been in need of a digestion of gains for some time," he said, noting the S&P 500 has not fallen 2 percent in one day since May 19, 2003. "Usually you have big pullbacks at least once, if not several times, during a bull market."

still reckon the bulls will be out bargain hunting from the bell tomorrow... might open at a low point and climb til mid morning...

the frightener was the clamp down by the chinese authorities on what they describe as illegal speculation or similar by their nationals.

Steve .... those "funny" after hours indicators are often just that