Overheard On The Street
Here’s what they’re saying at mid-day:
Peter Eliades, President,
StockMarketCycles.com: “I read a recent Wall Street Journal article that
mentioned a company that tracks insider buying and selling, and the gist of
what the company said was that the typical move has been that when the market
comes down, the insiders start buying. In this last move down, however, the
insiders have been selling at a record pace which is really amazing to me. This
is something that is completely out of character with the way insiders usually
act. Usually their prices come down and they jump in and start buying. My guess
is that a lot of them are tech companies but the statistic is for the overall
market. It’s really quite remarkable.”
John Roque, Vice President, Arnhold and
S. Bleichroeder: “We’ve heard the counter argument that ‘time frames are
compressed now. Information is dispensed so rapidly that people make decisions
quickly. Bear market time frames are going to be shorter because industries,
companies, CEO’s and the Fed can, and should react much more quickly to counter
dislocations.’
This is indeed a compelling argument. But the excesses that built up in the
stock market the prior few years had never occurred before. Ever! So it is
reasonable to consider that even if by some mysterious and magical miracle the
major indexes and broader market stop declining today, we believe the rebuilding
process is going to take a long, long time. Longer than you want to consider
because there is no evidence of any basing patterns.”