Mike - good commentary. I invest (play in the stock market) and find it is similar to going to a casino or scratch offs at the local convenience store. There is certainly risk. I bought Bank of America and increased my original investment five times in the last six months. Then there was General Motors where I lost it all but... the bankrupt new company took me from $0.00 per share to 70 cents in the last two months... Diversification. Buy in the foods (everyone eats), buy in the financial/banks, buy in the utilities, buy in the drug/chemicals, buy in the energy fields, to name some key areas. Generally, they don't all go flush at once and the United States will rebound. The question how much and how long. We have a pending jobs challenge however, many of our jobs have been exported such as manufacturing. Where are people going to work??? This is the question on my mind. We can't all work at services based firms! :

Yikes, it might be wise to ask if the bear market is back. While I'm not an expert, I do watch some of the key indicators.

There are 2 questions that many may be asking. Is this a buying opportunity or a reason to sell? That question answered correctly can bring us much better fortune.

There are key indicators that I am seeing. The main one is the 50 day moving average, if that goes, then most traders will sell, and sell fast. This would be scary, and it could look like ditto all over again with the crash earlier this year. I watch the S&P 500. The 50 day moving average is around 1017 on a closing basis.

On a fundamental level, the economy is improving, but in no way healed. I just see bandaids. Now, we have Iran and N Korea as wild cards, along with an enormous amount of US debt. This makes me cautious.

Bottom line is be careful out there!

Mike