>>>>>>My brother (who used to be a stock broker and is still very active on the market) called me this morning (at 8:30 am) and said that the market will go up 1000 points today.
>>>>>
>>>>>One step at a time. It is quite enough to change market trend, big numbers will come later. General market was oversold to extreme point so potential is huge.
>>>>
>>>>I am sure the big number is just a guess and speculations. Time (and not just one day) will show.
>>>
>>>The stock market is just guess and speculation. It is legalized gambling on top of a pyramid scheme. Now everybody (gambler or not) gets to pay for the gambling losses. Otherwise the gamblers would be the only ones to lose.
>>
>>In general, everything could be presented as a guess and speculations. However, as long as gambling is legalized, that's the reality, people have choice going either to Vegas or to market. Usually, the same people do not go to both places, i.e. it might be a different kind of guesses and speculations.
>
>People also have the choice of not going to Vegas or to the stock market. Some of those people actually decide to earn their income rather than look for the quick buck.
>
>My wife and I are a couple of those people. We invested in ourselves. We'll get stuck footing the bill for the gamblers though.

Everyone has own choice. By the way, 'gamblers' (i.e. shareholders) are the only people who are not rescued, e.g. both AIG and Lehman shareholders are wiped out while companies employees and clients walk along with no visible harm. In other words, you may get stuck footing the bill, but your money go in different direction (I quite understand that this is not a big consolation).