Another Rough Day on Wall Street: -449 Points

I've already confessed that--like John McCain--I don't know a whole lot about the "fundamentals" of the economy. I never have really understood Wall Street, or exactly what is going on when stocks rally or crash. I sorta get it, but nowhere near will enough to write authoritatively about it.

But today, I installed one of those desktop tickers, just out of curiosity. As you know, Monday was the worst day on Wall Street since September 11, 2001. Yesterday, stocks went up a bit, enough for FOX "News" to try and put a smiley face on it. So, I was interested what would happen today. After installing the widget, I very quickly became obsessed. . .and verklempt.

My God, how do stock traders with actual money and careers on the line do it day after day? I watched the stocks go down--they never went above the opening number all day--to minus 150, minus 200, minus 229, minus 275. . . Sometimes only seconds went by, and suddenly, minus 350. They bounced around a while, I think getting all the way "up" to minus 125 or something, then took a steeeep dive to minus 449!

I realize that a day like today is rather extrodinarily bad, but I don't think I could take that as a career.

[Excerpt]

Wall Street plummets after AIG bailout fails to ease jitters

US shares went into a new freefall Wednesday after the Federal Reserve's massive bailout of insurance giant AIG failed to calm a financial market storm and investors rushed for safe haven assets.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 449.36 points (4.06 percent) to end at 10,609.66 in the second massive loss in three sessions, and as global markets saw more turbulence. . .

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