Panic sellers did not profit on Monday By Will McClatchy September 17, 2001

After watching today's low closing prices, US equity investors who held onto stocks out of patriotism today might have felt a bit foolish. In reality they did just fine. Everyone in the US market got hit today, and selling on the morning the markets reopened was by no means an obvious out.

How so? Because the markets opened at a lower price. There were no bids at last Monday's closing price. Consider the SPDR (ticker:SPY) that tracks the S&P 500 index:

If you placed a market order thinking you would avoid the drubbing you were wrong. In fact you would have missed a small rally.

Similarly with the Nasdaq's QQQ:

Everyone opened at 31.25. The last trade was 31.20. That's about as sleepy a day as you are going to get with the Nasdaq.

The reality is that the terrorists have hit everyone economically, some more than others. But panic selling as usual did no good.