Down a lot

I haven't commented on the massive sell-off that's been going on lately, and I don't think that I really need to all that much. The credit squeeze that has been predicted is hitting. The economist said something about it, but only after the market was taking a hit. Is it all because of the mortgage-industry lending practices? Cramer certainly thinks this is huge. In any case, it has certainly been a disaster for my total portfolio, as you can see on the chart. From the peak on July 16, my total portfolio is down 15%. On top of that, my MFI portfolio is down the most, with 8 of my 20 MFI stocks currently down by 20% or more.I've been buying stock in a few companies that I had had my eye on. Ctrip, for example is fairly low. Nowhere near as low as when I first bought it, but low. I've also taken the opportunity to make a few small purchases into the financial sector. These have unsurprisingly been hit especially hard. I've seen a number that are now selling at below book value, and several more that are near book value. I think this is a an example of the market going crazy, like luminaries always talk about. The Motley Fool guys have been saying for a while that it could come. Now that it has, one of them said he thought it was almost over, but he could be wrong and it could last quite a bit longer. The only question is how long. Maybe the Fed cutting the discount rate yesterday was the first step to recovery. The market was certainly buoyed: it jumped about 2%. We'll see...