What does this market feel like for players at ground zero? I asked thehead of one of the leading hedge funds how he had traded his portfolioWednesday, the day the joint rescue package was announced. He answeredthat he had stayed out of the market because he wasn't sure what to do.Trades that looked sensible at 10 a.m. would have turned out to bemistakes by noon.
"If someone would take me out of all my positions, long and short,I'd do it," he said. This is the financial market equivalent of sayingyou want to start over. Six months into the credit crunch, that's theway many exhausted players are feeling. The markets will have to sink agood deal more, alas, before the vultures arrive to carry off thedebris and the process of rebuilding can start.
The writer is co-host ofPostGlobal, an online discussion of international issues. His e-mail address isdavidignatius@washpost.com.
