The Stock Market: Zap!

Macro issues aside, many stocks now trade at bargain prices. Sell now and you risk selling at the bottom. Ironically, a lot of tech stocks now trade higher relative to this year's earnings than they did even before the slide. So they still look expensive. But that's because near term earnings assumptions are falling faster than the stock price. If the earnings slump is temporary, as it most likely will be for blue-chip firms like Intel and Microsoft, the near term outlook should be ignored if you are a long-term investor. A better metric is the expected five-year growth rate.

At times like these it can be hard to hang on to your stocks. No one knows if they will go lower before they rebound. But if you sell now for any reason other than to diversify, you probably shouldn't be in stocks in the first place. They work their magic only over long periods of time.

--With reporting by Bernard Baumohl and Carole Buia/New York, David S. Jackson/Los Angeles, Marc Hequet/St. Paul and Douglas Waller/Washington

Chat with Dan Kadlec about the future of the economy on AOL at 7 p.m. E.T. on 3/21. Keyword: Live