A Slight Recovery
The media are reporting today that Alan Greenspan actually said that recession was possible, not probable. They are also reporting that the Chinese governments planned 20% capital gains tax was just a rumor, not a definite decision. Consequently the Chinese and U.S. markets recovered a bit today. This could cause a delay in my predicted stage two of the inevitable market correction. I was hoping that we could get this thing over with by Friday at 4 p.m., but that will be impossible now. The media can drag this thing out with alternating days of positive and negative news, keeping viewers glued to the tube and to the commercial air time. At this point, I can actually envision this bi-polar drama going on for a couple of months before the market bottom gets established and the investment vehicles for underpaid musicians reach their most affordable price.
There have been several news reports of the servers on Wall Street being unable to handle the tremendous numbers of buy and sell orders yesterday. In fact, at 4 p.m.the floor traders at the NYSE today were instructed to not close down their trading desks until all of the last minute orders were filled. I have never heard of this being done before. From my own experience yesterday, my own stockbroker was unable to process a trade for me during the first few minutes of the crash. When I attempted to buy a stock, I would get a message that active trading was not possible at this time. Another first in my trading experience. Eventually I was able to get a bid “queued ” for trading but not “placed” for trading.  I will have to assume that this will be the situation facing me during the next huge selloff. There are just so many people playing the market on their home computer now that the information superhighway cannot handle the traffic.
At least I was able to occasionally remember to work in a relaxed attentive state today. The stock market may not be under my control, but my body, mind and heart can be if I remember that I am a living presence within them.
‘Till tomorrow,
I.C.