82 was NOT a blip, it was the end of a rough bear market, and a great relief for those caught in it over a long span of time.
Regards 87, i know the event, the greatest sell-off in one day in history was catastrophic for all who were on margin. I have a friend that was literally wiped out that day and i remember his desperation that day to get hold of 250,000 dollars to cover his imminent margin call--he couldn't do it, his loss was 500,000 dollars.
But on a longterm chart you can see it as a blip, a vicious down move within a bull-market.
Bear markets do NOT have one day crashes and then voila, recovery, they are started by a sharp sell-offs and then go on and on, in a relentless downtrend with only swingtraders making money on the up and down motions in a mean downtrend.
I myself, having witnessed what happened in 87 am vigorously opposed to margin.
But, drat, anyone following closely the crash of 1987 knows it was fed fiercely buy sell programs, the system was tested that day and failed in a disasterous manner.
da cheif you were exuberantly bullish at in january, who were saying the year 2002 was going to a raging bull, and as i remember you were calling for a DOW of 16000.
I was saying this market was guranteed to break 9/21 lows this year and you were of the most voceferous at mocking such views.
Those are the facts and you know they are-- Max
p.s. Let's go back to 98, as many, the significant majority had major confidence of a sharp V-recovery following 9/21, but that we have not had such a V is confirmation we are in the belly of the bear that is still in search of a bottom.
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