This week saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average register its worst losses ever, extending October's reputation as a bad-news month for U.S. stocks. With banks failing domestically and abroad, and Iceland -- Iceland? -- on the verge of national bankruptcy, it's hard not to feel panicky about the state of the market.

In fact, not even market professionals are immune. On a routine visit to my dentist earlier this week, the good doctor informed me my blood pressure is high (yes, he's a very thorough dentist). My first response was, "Have you seen the market lately?"

It then occurred to me how much worse my hypertension might be if I didn't have the wisdom of market veterans to rely on each day at the office. With this in mind, I decided to survey a few of of my learned colleagues here at Schaeffer's Investment Research to see what advice they could offer you in the face of this unprecedented market turmoil.

Ryan Detrick, our senior technical strategist, notes that "It's all about a lack of confidence." (In light of the week's roller-coaster Dow ride, this seems to be the case for both bulls and bears alike.) Detrick explains that it's simple economic physics at work: "When you see banks going under in a matter of days, no one trusts anyone else to lend to them. This, of course, leads to a huge economic slowdown and in a very quick fashion."

However, he says, U.S. investors can at least indulge in a bit of schadenfreude. "The reality of the situation is, Europe is probably in worse shape than the U.S.," observes Detrick. "It seems like nearly every day Europe is bailing out another bank. We've had crises before, but this is the first one in our generation that has spread throughout the globe."

So, with panic sweeping the known universe, what's a trader to do? "Don't panic" seems like obvious advice, but our resident blogger and senior equities analyst, Nick Perry, finds that a bit trite. "I've lost count of how many times I've been told that 'now is not the time to panic,'" he says. "This bothers me for two reasons. One, is there ever really a time to panic? Two, it's like telling someone who's on fire to 'think cool thoughts.' In other words, it doesn't help."

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Don't panic!, and other words of wisdom from seasoned market vets originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.