Quote from stock_trad3r:
nah it's called SKILL -something 97% of people here lack
You need to understand something. Stock prices are forward looking. The only reason GOOG and others held up is because the companies are financially strong and have good earnings.
There are 2 aspects to price, Systematic risk and Unsystematic risk. The unsystematic risk are the factors that every stock has such as earnings, cash flow...etc.
The systematic risk is the tricky part. Systematic risk has to do with macroeconomic factors that VIRTUALLY NO stock or company is immune from.
The reason that their prices held up was because the owners of the stock are "hedging" their bets right now. Those companies are strong. If the economy can weather the tough times ahead, then those companies should be ok.
BUT...I repeat...BUT...if the economy goes into a recession, those companies are going to be greatly hurt. Google and AAPL are both companies that REQUIRE a strong economy to be as profitable as they had in the past.
So back to my original statement. Stock prices are forward looking. The owners of those stocks are hedging their bets by waiting for more economic indicators. *IF* the economy is confirmed to be in a down cycle, then the owners of those stocks will not value the forward looking price as being quite as valuable, and the price of the stock will fall to compensate for the reduced future earnings that will be inevitable.
btw...you have to admit that it was funny that the market was down 300 points the day after I said your comments confirmed the top.

While I was half-kidding by using your statements as hyperbole, I do believe that we may have topped.