During the 2008 - 2009 financial crisis, stock market crashed throughout the world and triggered the collapse of several big US banks. Back then, even the Singapore government had to make the unprecedent move of guaranteeing all bank deposits till end 2010 to prevent bank runs. There were mayhems and carnages everywhere. There were also opportunities. There was one point I was very tempted to purchase Citi's shares, which was trading at USD$1.00 through my Philips Securities POEMS account. Citi's shares was trading at rock bottom and anything below USD$1.00, chances of it being nationalised by the US government would be very high. I did not proceed ahead to buy the shares as I thought the risk would be too much for me to take. Of course Citi survived the crisis and its stock subsequently rised.

The "Great Recession" presented many good opportunities to make big bucks in the stock market but ......