2010-06-08

Greek stock market update

It's very difficult to find freely available data about the the Greek stock market, and even so on the flagship Athex 20 index, specially when you do not speak or write that beautiful language.

That said, I managed to find some information, and asked one of my friends who has access to a lot of market data sources to see if he can help out.

Here are some charts I would like to share with you:

The first one is the Greece General Index, from StockCharts.com:
The top was at about 5250 and the bottom at about 1470 (note that we are below that level now...). It means this index is down by about 72% from the top. Quite impressive!

The second one is the Dow Jones Greece index, from StockCharts.com:
The top was at about 450 and the bottom at about 112.50 (note that we are below that level now...). It means this index is down by about 75% from the top. Even more impressive!

The last one, I found on advfn.com, is the ASI index (FTSE Athex 20 AFAIR):
This one topped at about 2800 and is now at about 672, which means that it's down by more than 76%. Still more impressive!

Greece is making newer lows now, lower than March 2009. While we might be close to the bottom at these levels, nothing is certain yet.

Unfortunately, even after such a drop, the markets are unforgiving, and one might lose his shirt before the rebound. Just think about this fact: during the great depression, the Dow lost about 90% of it's value before finding the real bottom.

To get the fact right, just keep in mind that if you buy the dip after an 80% drop (what a bargain!) but that the market falls down further, to a total drop of 90% from the top (like during the great depression), well, you are down by 50% (yes! what a bargain it was!). Now you need the market to soar by 100% just to get even.

I'll be following the action from not too far away, and might try to get involved. I already dipped the toe in order to get a feel for it.

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