Many IT stocks were up 5-8% today on good volume. These stocks have not had a good year. Like it or not, the stock market is often a good predictor. Wonder what it was predicting today?

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), November 08, 1999

Answers

The stock market is a Fascist-Communist-Libertarian conspiracy! Repent, REPENT!!

-- (greatest@greater.fool), November 08, 1999.

I think the stock market is predicting what greedy fools many people have become. Any prudent investor who is aware of the potential global economic harm that could be caused by Y2K should be getting out of the market, staying on the sidelines until the smoke clears next year. You don't have to be a doomer to see this; it's just good common sense.

The stock market is like a nearsighted man driving a car at 100 miles an hour down a long straightaway; sooner or later there'll be a curve ahead. With his glasses off so he won't see any bad news, he's dead when he hits that curve.

-- cody (cody@y2ksurvive.com), November 08, 1999.

Tech stocks were up because micro$oft got a slap on the wrist.

-- a programmer (a@programmer.com), November 08, 1999.

Let's repeat some almost undeniable principles of the market:

1. The price of stocks is a direct measure of the world's optimism about the future of the market/economy/stock prices/whatever.

2. The tippy top of the market before a bear market sets in therefore is, by definition, the point of maximum optimism.

3. Therefore, we must necessarily conclude that the optimism reaches a maximum at the instant where the optimism will be shown to be completely unjustified. The morons who don't understand this are destined to part with their money when tshtf.

The same arguments work in reverse at market bottoms.

"I'd rather be out two months early than one day late." (Doesn't mean that watching the market climb doesn't make me wanna hurl my breakfast, however.)

-- Dave (aaa@aaa.com), November 09, 1999.