Play both sides of the fence, forget about "investing in the market." It's not even worth doing unless you're conservative and plan on holding onto a portfolio for the next 100 years. That's just boring.
If you're serious about making money, and want to bet big, the upcoming months are very important. First, the election of Obama will cause consumer confidence to rise prematurely since people think he's captain planet. So expect a decent end of november and december false bull market with regard to companies like apple and research in motion (you know, the guys that make shit that people don't really need but buy anyways when they have just enough money to put it on layaway - which Obama will give them the confidence to do).
During this same time period, expect the remaining big banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to rise and fall ridiculously on a daily/weekly basis. No stocks are trading on fundamentals right now - sort of like how they weren't trading on fundamentals during the bull market in late 2007. The difference is that the market is completely unpredictable at the moment, whereas in 2007 all you had to do to make money was buy call options the day before certain firms released their earnings reports. The best strategy right now is to to pick out which companies are potential takeover targets since every company is dirt cheap atm. Then, from that list, pick some companies that you think might be completely fucked. Buy and short accordingly, and invest in long term options (i.e. those that expire in April 2009) to prevent yourself from losing more than 30% if your research and analysis proves to be weak.
Now's an awesome time in the market, if you ask me. Great time to get involved, but think beyond "buying stocks." That's what old people do.
