The stock market volatility has been unstable for the last two days. The ^VIX (Volatility S&P500) was holding the last couple of days at 20, but it gained 20% yesterday and climbed 60% today. The VIX shows an investor how much uncertainty there is in the markets. As it increases, so does the uncertainty on Wall Street.

For the last few months, I’ve been writing on my other blog, Beating The Stock Market, about how the markets were going to turn ugly, and informing my readers to sit patiently on the sideline to prepare for a day like today. I’ve mentioned how when a sell off like this happens, there is always too much selling of any and all stocks. Other investors are too busy saving their own skin to realize that so many more are doing the same. Causing the price of most stocks to fall below or close to the company’s “book Value”. To figure a company’s book value, look at the shareholders’ equity minus all intangible assets. This will give you in theory, the value of the company’s tangible assets, also known as “net tangible assets. There are plenty of stock market books as well as stock market trading software to assist you in learning more about book value.

The big sell-off started just after 2:30pm and the DOW fell below the 10,000 mark around 2:45pm at which point investors realized that too much selling had occurred, at which point it was time to put in Limit orders to start acquiring more shares. After the DOW and the S&P 500 fell 10%, I started to buy. I may have been a little early but it’s fine with me. I typically wait for the markets or an individual stock (one that I’ve researched) to fall 8% before I buy more shares or start a new position. That is one of my stock market strategies to help me make more money.

Today was a great day to make some quick money in the stock market today, If you’re a day trader, I’m sure you jumped out of those position before the end of the trading day, but if you’re an average investor, be prepared to sell off those share real soon. Like I also stated on my other blog, I expect the markets to fall much further than it did today.

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