I love the logice of "Sprint is a terrible buy! It's at 4.86! However, I thought it was an awesome buy at $7.99! That's when I got into it!"
Isn't it even a better buy at $4.86? Or do you have some information about the underlying company that tells you it's NOW a bad buy even at the lower price? If that's the case, why don't you SHORT some for $4.86, since it is now such a terribly high price for Sprint stocks?
I don't think there is any indication whatsoever that corporate profits are about to recover (across the board). Further we have a handful of high profile companies restating earnings due to revised accounting rules. Ultimately, once reality returns to the markets, corporate profits is the yard stick for stock value. I think that reality has returned, and investors are once again interested in the yield, the P/E values, and other indicators of profitable revenues.
Trendy yet unprofitablye companies are no long in vogue. My IRA has been almost entirely invested in gold mining stocks for the past 3 years or so, and it has grown almost 10-fold over that time. Of course, that investment strategy maybe outdated, so I can't recommend that you jump into gold mining stocks now that the killing has already been made. Frankly, I don't know where to go from here. I think there is further upside potential for precious metals and mining, but perhaps the big gains have already occured.
You might want to investigate foreign stocks as a possibility. Remember that all the news from Japan has been bad bad bad for their economy. Instead of getting scared away, maybe its time to see if there are some real bargains on the Japanese exchange. Or whatever. The point is, sometimes bad news on a company, or an industry is good news for bargain hunters. Sometimes its just bad news. But with some research, you can at least make an educated guess.
Bad news on an unprofitable dotcom with no working business model = just bad news
Ford motor company hitting some of the lowest prices in recent memory (approximately $12 - $13 range) = maybe good time to buy