Major Dow Jones Collapse - Please Turn the Machines Off

Dow Breaks 50% Retracement from March '03 lows

The Dow Jones broke through the 50% retracement levels today from the '03 lows.  This is not a good thing for the markets and there will be little to stop the Dow Jones from committing a free fall down to the 61.8% retracement around 10,000.  Who would have thought back in '99 that the Dow would be virtually in the same spot roughly 10 years later.  Below is a weekly chart of the Dow.

I have been saying for sometime now that the US government is not being totally honest with the American people and the World Markets.  I am often asked, why the rush with this bailout plan?.  Why can't we wait a week or two for the TARP to be approved?  Well, if today is any indication, traders and investors are not willing to wait for Congress to get its act together.  Today while I was trading I attempted to cancel an order and it was so crazy on the floor, it took over 30 minutes for my order to be removed because the specialist was overwhelmed.  To put it simply, this is a wild trading environment.  Day trading is proving a challenge, because you can't short any financial stocks because the SEC is trying to prevent a blood bath.  Swing trading is rough as well, because your safe bet could gap down in the morning.  So where do we go to find the bargains?  Well the one bright spot in this market has been the gold market.  As you can see from one of our contributors, Jack Chan, all of the major gold and silver commodity indices are on buy signals.  Stay tuned....