Quote from Cutten:
Last time I checked, dozens of RE stocks have gone bankrupt, and almost all are down 50-95% from their highs. If that isn't a stock market apocalypse, what is?
See, this is a trader's site. We are more concerned with what is going to happen to the prices of stocks, since that's what we trade - we don't trade GDP, foreclosure rates, or canned food prices. As of now, short real estate stocks has been the biggest bonanza of a one-way bet since the dot.com collapse.
The gracious thing for you real estate bulls to do would be to admit you were flat out wrong. Admit that you were long and wrong into the biggest real estate bear market since the Great Depression 75 years ago. Then at least you could keep your dignity. Trying to pretend it's not a big deal just looks pathetic, at this late date.
If you were short some of, or any of, these bankrupt RE companies, or some of those down 95%, good for you. You made an astute trade.
But when you and many of the others around this website starting talking about the demise of RE, the stocks went up another 50-100%. Talk about dignity? Why don't we talk about how you traded these stocks on the short side as they went up another 50-100%.
That said, what many of us were talking about was "real property", not stocks. And I will say that my properties are down some, but not much. I would have expected them to be down more. Rents on the other hand are up. So over the last few years my income is rising.....which is the reason I hold "real property".
That said, I leave the ins and outs of shorting builder stocks to you guys who can figure out how to short a rising stock and make money without a margin call. I suppose it helps to never have mentioned a specific name eh Cutten?
OldTrader