Anyone here trade American stocks? Dow rips 368 points on Friday

[Sojuncoke]

Today, DOW is down 150 points. Anybody thoughts on this short term before the FOMC meeting? WOuld like thoughts from active traders here?

[SiSePuede419]

Random perturbations on a Goldman Sachs timeline.

Any other questions?

[NeverSure]

I own stocks but I'm not an active trader. I buy stocks where I believe in the company and stand pat unless something changes long term.

Commodities and especially oil took a dump and drug the market down today. Think about this. If you remove the energy stocks from the equation, company profits are up about 7% this year. That's higher than the overall economy growth by about double. I think that bodes well for stocks as the prices are about midway between the last six years' highs and lows.

I don't see a big move by the Fed, but the Fed is the Fed. They like to do the unexpected, seemingly to keep people in the dark and unable to make a lot of money off their moves. They are always secretive.

The American economy is strong right now and growing, but inflation doesn't seem to be a problem so I'd have to wonder about what the hurry is to raise rates. Home interest rates are still under 4% despite good regional recoveries.

The bottom line is that I don't try to see the future but rather concentrate on corporate fundamentals and try to ride out the swings.

Cheers.

[gk10002000]

Stop trying to be an active trader. At the end of a year you will have amassed a huge amount of brokerage fees. Buy decent dividend payers, sell some covered calls now and then. If the stock price goes up and you get called to sell, so be it. You made money. Now go find something else to buy.

[Langsuan Man]

Normal year end volatility , some are selling to lock in gains or losses for tax purposes, some are buying because of liquidity from those sales, and many are just going with the flow, just be grateful you are not in other markets