Or, they can work in the coal or salt mines. On the Stock Index Futures, their margin deposits will be held in T-Bills (95% Marginable). That way, the government can keep rolling over its short-term debt, as well.
How about pointing them to a copy of Harry S Dent's (of Roaring 2000s fame) latest offering: Harry Dent Book To be fair to the man, I think recall him mentioning something about a couple years downturn in the early 2000s, before swinging back into high gear. Seems hard to believe now, but at these times it always would be hard.. In any case, whether you agree with him or not, he brings up some interesting points.
Make CNBC free and have analysts on 24 hours a day touting the coming year's "must have" stocks that are "dirt cheap bargains."
send the jerky boys door to door lissen up nitz, you get back in this market, get back in this friggin' market right now so help me i'll bash ya friggin' head on the hood of my friggin' car. get on the phone nitz, you buy some friggin' stocks or you're gonna taste shoe leather from the wrong end, capiche? bonds are for pansies, weenie boy. you buy SMH. you buy SMH right now fruitcake, i'll kick yer friggin' teeth in. i'm good like that. stop cryin' jonny, dial faster. and get me bret weir
The public needs excess money before it starts putting money in the stock market. The public needs jobs with paychecks before they can have excess money. People have lost their money in the stock market, and they've lost their jobs. They've been burned in this game, and they don't have the money to keep playing it even if they wanted to.
Pessimism abounds at a market bottom. It's like being depressed, you feel like you have always been like this and always will be like this. Not true at all however (unless you are a really bad trader I suppose). I would like to propose a non-depressed scenario: Baby boomers know at this point that they do not have enough put away to retire on. A lot of them are really pathetic in the savings department in fact. When the economy turns upwards to the point where everybody knows it and they are feeling pretty good about things they will put money in stocks. The markets will have been running up for 6 months prior to that time. All the advisers, (who are already declaring bonds as a bad investment for the near term) will be saying "allocate more to stocks" and the individuals that manage their own 401k's will be moving from the capital preservation funds and bonds and T-bills to the growth funds and putting more away for retirement from their paychecks. Now we have a republican government. Typically the markets do a lot better under Democrats because they pump the economy with public spending. Republicans were talking about privatizing social security before the big bust. When the markets are again seen as a good thing they will probably do just that, pointing out that over the long haul having money in USA stocks is a good thing. That should be the real kicker, tons of money flowing into stocks. Now when the boomers retire and sell their risky stuff.... watch out below. No matter what the market, trade the volatility. Max