Trading in the stock market right now is akin to having your pocket picked by a blind man whose pocket you just picked a moment ago. In other words, get to the sidelines if you aren’t already there.

By now everyone knows the outcome of Ben Bernanke’s speech at Jackson Hole on Friday. For those looking for a cure-all from the chairman of the Federal Reserve, his speech was a disappointment.

            Everyone seems to be looking for the same thing, an end to the pain, an end to the stress, a place where the selling stops. It’s called a bottom and it appears to me that we haven’t found one yet.

Last week, I advised investors to “wait for the bounce” before getting more defensive. We’ve had three bounces this week, so by now you are either out of your most aggressive investments or nearly so. Stay defensive.

Unless you have been living in a vacuum, you are keenly aware of the stock market’s freefall. Panic is in the air and rumors are swirling around the Street’s trading floors. It is time for investors to step back and take a breath.

 Here we are, just two working days away form Armageddon and despite constant assurances from politicians and Wall Street alike, there is still no deal in sight.

            On Friday the European Union announced a new $157 billion bailout plan for Greece. The scope of the plan went much further than most investors expected. It promised to finance all countries that need bailouts for as long as it takes for them to recover. There’s more.

This week the scales finally tipped. The phones began to ring and each call was roughly the same. “What are the chances the debt ceiling won’t be raised?” “What happens if the politicians can’t make a deal?’ “What will happen to my investments if the worst case scenario happens?”

Up until Friday’s disappointing unemployment numbers, the stock market appeared ready to regain the year’s high all in one week. However, the ugly news that the nation hired a meager 18,000 of our unemployed dashed investor’s hopes that the economy might be gaining strength in the second half.

Well, we’ve made it through another pullback together. It seems clear to me that this week’s stock market action is telling us that the worst is over—for now.