Quote:
Originally Posted by Paq
funny story about the short selling ban, sorry to get off topic or something, but anyway..
not only did they ban the short selling..they did not allow you to exercise puts or sell naked calls either. Options traders/most experienced investors, etc were denied 3 major and i repeate MAJOR ways of hedging themselves in this market. It has made my life increasingly difficult. I don't even touch the stocks that don't allow me a full range of tools. It's not even that i am shorting the stock, but i can't sell verticals, the bid/ask spread on teh options are haywire (for instance, a $10 strike put on GS, a $130 stock, is still about $5..in a normal market, you would not have ANY value in a put under the $80 strike price.)
also, for a while, they were not allowing any of the ultrashort financial etfs to trade (SDS, SKF) which investors use to hedge market downturns.
now..even with those two rules in effect..the market managed to sell off 400 points this week....
sorry, it's just aggravating, and yes, it affects more than the 'advanced traders' etc. since a lot of etfs and fund managers use options and other vehicles to manage the accounts..
ugh, frustrating.
as for how i'm affected, 10% of my retirement fund is gone this year, but my trading account is doing very very well. while you can't short the financials, you can short the parts of the market that are affected by the turmoil. What is sad, though, is the latest revision i received from an investment group talking about how much of our gdp is going down the drain while politicians are arguing over stupid shit that just needs to be DONE.
|
I wish I understood more of what you're saying.
My 401K is down about 13% so far this year. Other other accounts are down about 8%, course haven't checked them today.
My sister-in law was laid off at WaMu today. I read a news story this morning that made it sound like things would go on as normal with customers and employees. According to her it was "Good morning, here's a box please clean out your desk. After you're done we'll need your keys and ID." 27years with the company. I guess she also lost over 60% of her pension account.
For years my brother owned a small restaurant. Recently it went under, business dropped to the point he just couldn't keep the doors open. Now he's working for a major office supply chain store. I'm worried that he might be in jeopardy as he's low on the totem pole.
Times are definitely going to be hard for some people. And I fear it's going to get worse before it gets better.