[KnowItAll]

No, not talking about the pub quiz. Talking about the financial markets....

Is this the big correction?

If not, how low will the dow / hang seng index go?

[ingenue]

Originally Posted by KnowItAll

No, not talking about the pub quiz. Talking about the financial markets....

Is this the big correction?

If not, how low will the dow / hang seng index go?

Don't do anything over the next few days...it can go either way. Best advice I've heard from everybody I work with - brokers and traders alike - is to wait and see.

[KnowItAll]

I'm not about to do anything in this situation. (Lucky enough to have pulled out and cashed some index driven funds on the 22nd of February).

Just curious...

[ingenue]

Originally Posted by KnowItAll

I'm not about to do anything in this situation. (Lucky enough to have pulled out and cashed some index driven funds on the 22nd of February).

Just curious...

Good timing on your part! Yeah honestly nobody seems to have a clue today...a lot of traders seem to have gotten burnt on their positions from yesterday in Asia time...a lot of feelers being put out today as to where the market might be going, but nobody really gaggin' to get involved.

FYI I'm a broker in money markets...USD and HKD interest rate swaps.

[RastaMan]

So?

I was hoping for a crash, so I could invest my hard earned money in an index fund.

It dropped 2% and now it's recovering again. I can see that it can't go on improving forever, but is it better to wait for the long overdue crash (or mini-crash), or invest in an index fund now?

By the way, I am interested in an European and Asian (probably Chinese) index fund.

Any advice is very welcome. Thanks.

[sp1key]

asia market had a mini-dip the past few days financially...

for funds look to vietnam in the asia region. It is quite new and gradually maturing, prospect seems quite good but of cause risk is there since it is new but worth keeping an eye on.

btw I'm not really informatic about finance and economics so do forgive if anythings' inaccurately mentioned...

[KnowItAll]

Was a bit disappointed that it did not drop further. Was of the mind that a 15% drop in March would probably even things out a little bit.

[migao]

Yup... HSI still above level at beginning of December... red chips ought to sink; P/E's around 35 in average, one nice example:

http://www.flexnews.com/pages/7396/B..._hk_debut.html

They've got a brand that never flies outside China and market share of around 35% on Mainland... P/E >50 is just a laugh, this market is insane.

[KnowItAll]

Lets see how Alan Greenspan's little interference plays out.

reuters...

Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan was quoted as seeing a "one-third probability" of recession in the United States this year, according to an interview with Bloomberg.

"We are in the sixth year of a recovery; imbalances can emerge as a result," Bloomberg quoted Greenspan as saying.

"Ten-year recoveries have been part of a much broader global phenomenon," Greenspan said in the interview.

He said the historically normal business cycle was much shorter and was likely to be this time, the news agency said.

[cendrillon]

US economy is definitely a bit of a worry. At the end of the day though I still think if you pick stable companies, with good growth prospects and don't pay outrageous prices (ie. PEs above 18), then you'll still do well regardless of any short term corrections in the market.

The dips lately have provided alot of good buying opportunities, particularly HSBC which has a PE around 12 at the moment.

An interesting thing I read the other day, Buffet says he rarely considers macro-economic factors when choosing stocks and figures that if you invest on a 10-20 year time scale that timing the economic cycle is not so important, although he's also expressed concern about the US economy lately.