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All of those things are true, and none apply to the current situation.

The economy is crippled by events (closures, reduced commerce) necessary to battle the Chinese Flu.

That is NOT the time for vultures to flock to make a killing. Foreigners may be doing that out of their hate for the United States - but Americans going out of their way to profit off of the pain of their country is disgusting.

An honorable reaction would have been to remain on the sidelines until there is a recovery, then invest in our recovery.

The shorters are merely walking up to a down and wounded opponent and shooting them repeatedly in the belly, laughing while they do it and saying, "Look at me - I'm so smart to capitalize on this situation!"

The wounded opponent wouldn't be wounded if he didn't sell. You can only lose in this market if you were stupid enough to sell. I said it bluntly, but it is true. The market would not have crashed if people didn't sell. Shorters would not have made a killing if the losers didn't sell. It takes two people to make a trade. Buyers and sellers are just as responsible for the current market conditions. Why in the world would anyone fault someone that is getting the better half of a deal because the other half is F'n stupid? Again, being blunt as possible. If the market presents too much risk to people, or people don't know or care to manage that risk, then they shouldn't be in the market.

As the market recovers, and it will, you should still cover your positions, because the market will go down and up during a recovery. And on the way down, a lot a losers are going to sell again, thinking it is time to get out, even though they bought in at the bottom. Timing the market is for LOSERS. No one knows where the bottom or the top is.

I can tell you several things that are absolutely true about this market and using that information you can successfully trade. 1.) There will be long term volatility 2.) There will be intra-day volatility 3.) Volume will be tremendous on some securities. (at least 4 out of every 5 trading days.) 4.) All products will consistently consolidate on price (have short periods of time when the price is stable). Develop a strategy that relies on those four things. They are known. Market direction and price is unknown, and anyone who says he knows and trades naked is a gambler.

Trade using technical analysis. Fundamentals don't mean jack right now.

Lastly, don't listen to stock brokers, investment advisers, talking heads on CNBC, and journalists. If they knew what they were talking about they wouldn't have time to pimp their products or opinions because they would be trading and making a killing.

Learn about how markets work. Learn about equities, futures, options, and options on future. Learn about order types (market, limit, stops, MIT, etc.) Learn basic trading strategies, and develop your own to fit market conditions. Then back test. Revise and test again. Trade cautiously at first and build reserves before increasing the size of trades. A good strategy will work with 1 share/1 contract or many shares/contracts. The maximum number of shares/contracts that can be traded is dictated by average daily volume for those shares/contracts. You don't want to be stuck on a trade and unable to close your position because there is not enough volume.