Triple-digit moves in the Dow -- in both directions. The unemployment rate hitting 5.7 percent, a 4-year high. A staggering $15.5 billion loss at General Motors -- in the same quarter that Exxon set a profit record for any company. What's an investor to do? Mike Holland of Holland & Co. has some advice.
Recommendations:
"This market...is giving signs...that we may be somewhere near a bottom," Holland told CNBC.
That being the case, he recommends big, old-line, well-run companies, including IBM, Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan Chase, PepsiCo, and Disney.
Holland offered dramatic evidence of the difficulty of trading the current market.
"Talking...to one of the largest, most successful hedge funds, one of the guys there was saying they're half in cash," he said. "It's been very tough for the hedge funds, just to be flat for the year; they have huge amounts of cash -- or short positions."
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Bottom -- or Not?
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"When the market gives any indication...of not going down on bad news, the covering...is enormous. There's no liquidity to the upside, as there was no liquidity to the downside for the past 22 percent decline in the bear market."