The Dow calmed down today and ended up.

[MineralMan]

Instead of the wild swings that characterized the market all through the past week, today's market was calm, slowly rising 213 points over the trading day. During the second half of the day there were virtually no swings at all. Just a slow, steady rise in the DJIA.

Perhaps the nuttiness of last week exhausted the volatility. I hope so.

http://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=INDEXDJX:DJI

[Warpy]

1. I got the call from the financial guy last week

assessing my state of panic (nonexistent). It's not like I wasn't warned nor that I was planning to do anything stupid like selling out and going into t-bills, thus decreasing my income sharply (especially from legacy stocks my dad bought in the 50s).

I have a feeling his other clients have been on the blower for the last 2 weeks in varying stages of sheer panic. I wouldn't have his job for anything, I don't care how good the money is. As it is, the market never got much below 11,000 points so it was perfectly peachy by me.

[MineralMan]

2. A very reasonable approach. Very sensible.

I'm not in the market at all, so I'm just an observer of it as an indicator.

[Uben]

3. I hope it has calmed a bit, but I have no faith that will occur

Why? Because without movement in the market, the brokers do not make money. When they can sell off big blocks of stock and create the illusion of a panic, it works. Since they initiated the sell-off, they get top dollar for their stock before it dips, and when it does, they buy it all back at a much cheaper price, increasing their holdings and initiating a comeback to normal pricing. Only the panic sellers lose.