THE DISAPPEARING ACT - WHER ARE THE EXPERTS AND ADVISERS

Theres an old saying that "Rats are the first ones to flee from a drowning ship". Can the same logic be applied to all the so called experts and advisers who used to write articles with great pomp and vigour in almost all newspapers.
Even prominent and long standing newspapers had special features written by these so called experts.
Numerous Websites sprung up claiming to be investing gurus and news channels had special interviews with these so called experts who in their typical accented English kept telling how to buy and what levels to buy.
In the early part of the year 2008 , some of these experts even went to the extent of professing that the Sensex would hit 25000 and small time investors put all their hard earned money at highs of 18000 to 21500 thinking that their money value would increase.
A leading reputed newspaper used to have a bold column Your money invested in Jan 2007 in Gold , Silver , Sensex would be this much now. This seems to have disappeared.
Visit any private bank then and you would be greeted by a beaming business executive who would introduce those MF which their banks dealt with and where commission margins were high. New NFOs were aggressively being marketed. The business executive would call up everyday and ask whether that these are new funds and please invest.
Now those Business Executive don not even bother to call up and say fine please exit at this point.
Suddenly small time brokers started to use Anglicised names to promote their asset management companies and broking companies.Hear them speak on TV then one would realise that these people are no good.
Hep and intelligently designer commercial TV ads showing a fat man peacefully siting while a scuba diver runs around to catch fishes were the turning point of the mad and misleading companies by broking companies and Asset Mis-Management Companies.
Invest in Energy , Indo-global funds ,Latin American funds , Agri Infra funds , world gold funds and list goes on and on .

Some of the NFOs are so pathetic that a 10 Rs NFO is around Rs 2.50 .
Gullible first time investors did not even realise that some of the NFOs were close ended schemes where the exit load was very high to the extent of 8%.
Running commentaries by so called experts are no longer in vogue. If you see some of the News Channel now you can actually see the pain on the presenters face and that zeal and enthusiasm is lacking.

The question which most small time investors ask is
"What does one do at this point of time when the Sensex seems to hovering around 9000-10000 levels"
"Should I invest at these levels , will the Sensex then fall to 5000 levels leading to still further losses"
"For people who entered the markets at 18000 - 20500 levels is it worth to hold on. How long will it take for people to consolidate their losses to reasonable levels"