Reader poll: How long will the stock market continue to decline?

October 12, 2008 | Dean Takahashi

Executives and other experts are starting to make projections about how long the stock market will be down. We’d like to know what you think (top poll). Also, let us know how long you think the downturn will last for tech companies (bottom poll).

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About the Author, Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. He previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked.

  • Within two months the markets will be back to the 10,000 level for the DOW.

    And you can take that to the bank (they won't cash it but you can take it)

    Michael

    MarkTend.com
  • anon
    The wealth that made the Dow 10,000 was fictional. That fiction has been established and it will take real value to get it back up. That takes time.
  • Joe
    I'm buying. There are some extremely good values right now. Look at AA, COP, MSFT, etc etc. These are not banks.
  • Liem
    MSFT, AAPL, ORCL, and GOOG are overvalued companies will be adjusted accordingly as competition and the correction of market comes into play. If you look at financial statements of these tech companies, their market cap is 2 to 15 times higher than revenue. You don't see that kind of gap in retail and physical product industry.

    Convergence will come.
  • Margaret Mountains
    After 30 seconds, just like my boyfriend.
  • ben stecker
    the economic downturn of this country is solely based on competetive banking. Banks give loans in hope of turning a profit, But at what point did our greed blind us from safe and reasonable loans. We must take the intiative of living within ourselves and not taking out unreasonable loans. The market will turn around when our fear and greed subside.
  • Scott Pollock
    Based on some extensive research over the years and reviews of some information from a number of experts, my projections are: The market will be down for 12 to 18 months (although we will have good days and bad days along the way), then the market will level off for 6 to 12 months (although again the market will have many up and downs days but overall it will be fairly flat), at this point the market will start a slow but stable increase for a period of 12 to 24 months before we return to the returns as of 1-1-08. My expectations are the market recover will take approximately five years to return to 1-1-08 returns on the Dow.

    I also do not think we have seem even half of the bankruptcies and buyouts that will happen over then next 12 months or so. I have spent 25 years reviewing the markets and have been through a few downturns (although this one is definitely different). If you are in a retirement plan and are making ongoing contributions, I would recommend making your existing funds more conservative while keeping your future contributions at a comfortable level of risk that you had before all of this began.