Is My Investment Safe If My Broker Fails?

So Lehman is gone and Merrill is swallowed by BoA.
Over the weekend, two of the four largest investment banks disappeared from the Wall Street (the fifth, Bear Sterns collapsed in March). Though many small investors may not use Merrill Lynch as their stock broker, the fall of the two big brokerage firms reminds us that [...]

10 Largest Drops of Dow Jones

In case you care, here are the 10 largest one-day drops of the Dow Jones Industrial Average in terms of number of points in the history of the index.

Rank
Date
Closing Value
Change (points)

Change (%)

1
09/29/2008
10,365.45
-777.68
-6.98%

2
10/15/2008
8,577.91
-733.08
-7.87%

3
09/17/2001
8,920.70
-684.81
-7.13%

4
10/09/2008
8,579.19
-678.91
-7.33%

5
04/14/2000
10,305.77
-617.78
-5.66%

6
10/27/1997
7,161.15
-554.26
-7.18%

7
08/31/1998
7,539.07
-512.61
-6.37%

8
10/07/2008
9,447.11
-508.39
-5.11%

9
10/19/1987
1,738.74
-508.00
-22.61%

10
09/15/2008
10,917.51
-504.48
-4.42%

Today’s 504-point loss ranked No. 6.
Update: On September 29, 2008, the Dow lost 777.68 points as the House rejected the proposed bailout plan, the [...]

Dow Jones Dropped The Most in Seven Years

Last time the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index lost more 500 points in a single day was almost 7 years ago on September 17, 2001, shortly after the terrorist attack that brought down the World Trade Center.
Today, the stock market was hammered by what happened not far away from where the towers used to stand: [...]

Bought 125 WaMu Shares

I gambled today again on Washington Mutual (WM).
Two months ago, I bet on Freddie Mac (FRE) when the stock was traded below $7. For a company like Freddie, I thought that was an attractive price. That trade was proven to be as bad as it could be: The $100 I spent on the stock is [...]

What Have I Bought with My Zecco Play Money?

Seven months ago, I made part of my Zecco account a “play account” with a small amount of play money in it. For most of the stocks I purchased, I have hold them for quite a long time and have gone through the ups and downs through out the years. I am still planing to [...]

Stock Market Undid Itself, Giving Up All Yesterday’s Gains

Yesterday, financial stocks led a broad rally after the government’s effort to support the mortgage market by bailing out mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Today, however, all the gains from yesterday were gone and the Wall Street was again dominated by fears of the financial sector. This time it’s Lehman Brothers (LEH)that brought down [...]

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Shares are Worthless

It didn’t take long for the 16 shares of Freddie Mac (FRE) that I still own with Scottrade to reach the worthless price.
I could have sold my position when the stock was at something around $1.50 the first thing in the morning, but that wouldn’t save me anything since I bought those shares at $6.26 [...]

Boy, Was I Wrong on FRE

A little more than one month ago, I bought 16 shares of Freddie Mac [[FRE]] when the share dropped nearly 50% at the opening. At that time, my thought was “How bad things could be” at these government chartered mortgage providers (Freddie and Fannie). Aren’t they too big to fail?
FRE did have a good run [...]

Oil Down, Stocks Up, Two in a Row

Do you remember when was the last time the Dow had two consecutive 200+ days?
I don’t, but that doesn’t matter because I am concerned about the stock markets now than historical performance.
After closing below 11,000 for the Dow for the first time in two year this Tuesday, the stock markets put together a nice [...]

Scottrade Did Not Allow Me to Buy Freddie Mac (FRE)

On my way to work this morning, there was news that Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE), two congressionally chartered mortgage agencies, were on the verge of being bailed out by the government. That was not a piece of good news, given how hard the stock markets have been hit by subprime mortgage related [...]