You missed his point. We aren't the group thinkers, you guys are with a healthy dose of normalcy bias. The fact that you had to apologise before making a statement outside the realm of what passes for political correctness on this site is very telling.
The market is bonkers and only makes sense if you look at it as an inflationary bubble. It might bounce around and zip higher before crashing again, but when they tell you not to panic it's usually a ploy to get everyone else to hold on while the big players run for the fire exit.
I don't invest in the stock market for the same reason I don't bet on sports. It's all rigged.
That was not an apology. See my comments to Kulueana above.
When you say "crashing again", which crash are you referring to? I don't look at the market as an inflationary bubble unless I feel the market is over bought. And currently some stocks are and some stocks are not. But even when the market is over sold there are stocks like that. I don't have the conspiracy theory mentality that you do. I don't believe that anyone is not saying not to panic. Every expert I listen to says exactly what I said. It is too early to tell if this is just a dip, or is going to be a correction or is going to be a crash. That is why I asked if you guys were being a bit premature.
BTW, I don't disagree with your analogy about the big players moving their money from stocks to bonds. Or pulling out altogether. The difference between you and I is that I believe everyone has the same opportunities as the big players. We can pull out and/or move money to bonds anytime we want to. And I stated this before and will state it again. All brokers have a tool that allows you to sell your stock automatically when it hits your predetermined price. It is called a stop loss order, good until executed. It means you don't have to predict the highs and lows in the market. And it will minimize or eliminate loss of equity. No one has to hold on to watch their stocks lose value. Even 401K's have safe havens in their mix. Only the naive hold on during a crash.
I ran out of time this morning so I am just going to add this bit:
In my opinion, everything you say about the big players moving the markets in any direction may be true to some extent. But to think they all get together is a board room somewhere and decide what to do, how to do it and when to do it seems a little too much on the paranoia side to me. Every little guy in the market has the same power and ability to get in and out of the market at will. It just depends on whether the little guys understand how and when to do this. Everyone who hung on to their holdings during the last market downturn have generally come all the way back and are way ahead. Again, generally speaking. And everyone who sold at a loss, lost. Everyone who sold before they were at a loss locked in their gains. Everyone who plays the market has that ability. Maybe just not the mentality. In which case they shouldn't be in the market. But that is another discussion. Let's face it, the market has never moved so fast that no one has not had a chance to get out with either minimal loss or no loss at all. The biggest loss yesterday was what, 5%-6%? The people who locked in their profits around 6% sold automatically and kept from losing their profits using the stop loss order. The people who just recently got in and locked in their profits below 6% lost 6% if the stop loss was placed at this point. Not a 50% loss. Those who locked in their profits above 6% and sold automatically made a profit. And those who hung on may make up for the one day loss or may may continue to ride the market down a bit. Whatever the case and however those people decide to invest is doing so at their own level of comfort. I have no feelings for those who held on during the last crash and then whined and complained about how much they lost. They didn't have to do that. By law, every 401K and IRA and stock market account has to have a safe harbor. If an investor chooses not to use it, that is no ones fault but their own. JMHO