I’ve yet to see any of the trading geniuses say what they are doing in real time. It’s always “I’m up 200% for the year” or some BS like that.

I’ll say what I’m doing real time. Its the same as what I’ve done for the last decade. I stay in cash/gold until I see a sure thing then I go for it. I bought SKF as soon it was available and despite todays beating is still the top ETF performer of the last year.

Dollar-cost averaging has proven an ineffective strategy. It’s hyped by the private equity firms as it provides liquidity from the herd to finance the quant funds. We’ll see how your 401k is doing a year from now. And even if it recovers and you end up in the black in the long term, it doesn’t mean it was good idea to throw your money away in the interim.

Todays action was an example of one the few sure things in the financial markets, the ‘short squeeze’. Its also a lesson that shorts of individual investment houses/banks is bad juju. This is like trying to beat the house while playing against a stacked deck.

All the banks have to do is call up one of their billionaire buddies when they see record shorting of their stock and have them put in a big buy order. This forces a short-covering rally and drives the stock updwards. The banks and their cronies then sell off the rally, pocket the gains and the stock resumes its descent. This can be repeated many, many times.