The DOW is spinning like a gyroscope. I've never seen fluctuations this wild. Down 400 one minute, 30 the next and 300 the next. How could anyone take a plunge into a market like that.

I definitely see manipulation here. Something keeps trying to buck the downward trend.

They don't even have to go stealth.

Paulson just said he's going to "use all resources" and "all of the tools" that at his disposal, to re-capitalize "financial institutions of every size", and to "inject capital" as he sees fit.

Dead banks walking.

There is something very Resident Evil-ish about all this.

They feel fine because the gov't has a "tool box".

Just haven't realized yet that we are the tools.

Another round of mystery money hitting the financials again over the last 10-15 minutes.

to lighten things up: (read this on another forum)

REALITY CHECK, INVESTMENT ALTERNATIVE: If you had purchased $1000 of Delta Airlines stock one year ago, you would have $49 today. If you had purchased $1000 of AIG stock one year ago, you would have $33 today. If you had purchased $1000 of Lehman Brothers stock one year ago, you will have $0 today. However, if you had purchased $1000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the aluminum cans for recycling, you would have received $214 today. Based on the above, the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle. It is called the 401-KEG Plan.

It's a volatility index and it's never been this high. I don't know if there is an upper limit but I would supposed the is a point beyond which panic becomes meaningless
A good VIX number is in the high 20's low 30's

It has been hovering around -200 to -300 points but I have a feeling we will see a huge sell off around 3pm. People in the market want to pull out before the three day holiday.

-700 by close is my prediction but I have been so wrong this week it hasn't even been funny.

That's right, I forgot about Columbus Day. Change my 7000 Dow prediction to Tuesday.

You know those stories about global rules rewrite, that will definitely happen this weekend.

The reason the US is denying rumors of market closure, is they expect to get this done by Tuesday.

You don’t know what panic is – yet.

At present levels the Dow has experienced only the equivalent of the 1987 drop, which is bad enough. If you check the long term chart, it’s visible if you look for it, but hardly registers now among all the other gyrations. Over the past ten years, the Dow has based at around 7,000 and is still 17% above that. If this level cracks, hold on to your hats, because the next truly strong support is at 900 with a slight handhold at 2,000.

On the other hand, the equivalent bottoming of the 1929 crash is in the 1,800 area. The 1929 decline took three years and shows hugely on the chart. There was a twenty five year recovery period from that, including the second world war. That’s what your mothers/fathers and grand mothers/fathers had to live through.

I'm starting to think the markets aren't going to open on Tuesday. I'm thinking the three day weekend may turn into a three week weekend.

It seems at this rate the NYSE will end down around 5%, the massive fluctuations earlier today seem to be subsiding. Question is - will there be another large selloff at the end of the day as in previous days?

A complicated questions.
It depends on what the message will be coming out of the G7 meeting and what the PTB want to end the day on. Do they keep the fear high or do the calm things down a bit. I wouldn't expect a spike up, but the PPT could put enough in to keep things are the -5% range.
Personally, I'm feeling there will be another plunge. JPMorgan is sinking and GM is pretty much toast.