"Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful".
--Warren Buffett, Oct 2008 on buying US stocks for his personal portfolio in the Oct. 2008 stock market environment.
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"Be fearful when others are greedy"
This one is easy, and refers to a rally or uptrend.
"Greedy when others are fearful"
This is bottom fishing, much tougher.
This sell off is rather broad and unspecific, tough to know what the bottom will be. Or put another way, no one thing will reverse course.
But if you consider "Too big to fail" and Obama making a market call (a President, wtf?) there is Fed support, and we had Paulson. There is three ducks in a row right there. That's a bottom call .