From today's Irish Times:
ISEQ Overall 5798.49
12 month high 6798.30 (17/2/2005)
12 month low 5106.37 (10/5/2004)
So the ISEQ is currently 15% off it's 12 month high, and 12% off it's 12 month low.
A couple of observations. A lot of companies have recently reported earning for 2004, stocks have gone ex. dividend etc. and all of this has led to profit taking and hence a fall in many share prices.
SSIAs and pension funds
SSIAs don't begin to mature until April 2006. A lot can happen between now and then. It wasn't so long ago that equity SSIA funds were performing far worse than they are now, and they have recovered. To start reporting that the country's SSIA account holders 'lost' 10%, 20%, 30% whatever in a week and advising people to 'get out now' would strike me as sensationlist. Pension funds have been doing badly for quite some time, but that is due to the returns on bonds as well as equities.
Broker recommendations
These are based on longer horizons than 10 days. Brokers set a target, and advise that you should buy and hold until the price reaches that target. Whether you accept the recommendation is up to you. But do you really think that the decline in value of AIB, Kerry, Ryanair etc. is in any way permanent? I don't have any information that would lead me to believe that these share prices won't recover to the prices of April 14, and the newspapers and brokers probably don't either.
Only day traders and hedge funds take the sort of short-term bets you are alluding to (10 day periods). They are big enough to look after themselves, and don't need to press or brokers to get their information.