We sometimes forget that a stock transaction is a two-way street.  In order for anyone to sell their assets on Wall Street, someone else has to be willing to buy.  So, who are these people?  Bob Scraper at Frost Bank says one group is the "value investor":  "A lot of institutional buyers like myself - I'm a portfolio manager in a trust apartment - I'm doing a little buying...  I suspect a lot of institutions and the big buyers and the hedge funds and the mutual funds maybe are stepping in and buying a little bit."

KTRH Financial Expert Pat Shinn says these are folks who are looking for a good deal, and there are plenty to be had:  "They're basically going to be studying this, not if they're just going to buy a piece of paper that trades every day; they're going to be looking at it as if they were buying the whole company."

Shinn says the other buyers are the "asset allocators" -- who move their portfolios from stocks to bonds to cash.  As they find good buys - they change their portfolio allocations. 

So, is this a good time for you to get back into the market?  Scraper says there's not a "one size fits all" answer.  But those who are in for the long run may want to think about buying stock:  "Not in a big way; a little bit now, a little bit later.  This bear market may not be over even though we're very, very oversold.  We're going to more than likely get a big rally."

Both Scraper and Shinn say the last time the market was this undervalued was 1982, the beginning of the longest bull market in US history.