Well over the past 20 years I have seen this kind of "carnage" (to the down side anyway) multiple times. Each time the world was supposed to end as we know it. Each time we almost reached or exceeded old highs or were up 50-100% or more from lows, depending on equity and index. But -THIS TIME- I am SURE the world is ending. How do you play it?
Any way you want. But first look at some charts from the '30's. Particularly the '32 / '33 bull run. There were multiple significant bull runs within the larger secular bear. It is really easy to be right and lose money. It's tempting to gear up the leverage but dry powder has real value in chaos. Be aggressive but do not forget that bear market rallies are like tsunamis. They hit hard and out of nowhere. Futures, options, straight shorts -- I think Amazon will trade well under $100 before this is over -- wherever you expertise is greatest is where you should be. Don't shot for Mars but the moon is possible. The world is leveraged to the hilt and the assets look great against those debts until you need to sell them fast. Under the hammer only good whiskey maintains its value. And then catch 'em on the inflation side when the presses go into overdrive. One man's opinion. Take it or leave it.
Start multiple streams of income. Trading volume is not only drying up it will be worse than the volume during the 1930s aftermath for decades. Sure, you'll be able to trade a low volume market if there is volatility, however, this Volatility will not last and soon, watching moves will be like watching paint dry. The MAINSTREAM has lost interest and confidence in the markets and are causing historical outflows of into cash. Main Stream press and Wall Street will not talk about this. HFT's are controlling the market moves up to 40%. Trading, "Day Trading", et all is going to be a dying game for 90%. many have already been forced out, do to no fault of their own. They can't compete against HFTs, Banks, the FED, market manipulation et all. The Markets are no longer Free Markets. The world is not ending but the Financial Markets as we have known them since the 30s, are ending.
If I do not confuse your name with someone else, you were bullish at the top, and now you are bearish?
I guess I'm a sucker since I just put 401K money into more aggressive funds, as of close today. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I would say that your speculating. Not so much a sucker. Plenty of people are trying to call a counter move. More people are bearish now, the "Black Swan Index" as defined by the Volatility index printed by the CBOE with 1,2 3 standard deviations out is not bearish, so, you'r just buying into a a sell off, which is what your supposed to do. Of course, timing is never perfect and if you leg in, you may catch a pop. But the overall trend of the market is Bearish, the economy is in a recession and things are getting worse before they will get better. In any Bear Market you have rallies. As long as the volatility stays, playing both sides of the market is the play. I'm talking long term. I doubt your net worth is very large at this moment and I also doubt your making 6 plus figures as a trader. So, keep your day job and keep playing with your 401k money. If I count right, that is two streams of possible income. Unless you get laid off and you'r early in the going long play and take a huge loss.