OK, anybody who didn't see this coming, go bang your head against the wall until your brain falls out:

BEIJING, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese shares slumped sharply on profit-taking on Tuesday, with the major Shanghai index down 8.84 percent, the biggest daily drop in 10 years.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index, covers both A- and B-shares, plunged 8.84 percent to closed at 2,771.79 points, the biggest daily dive since Feb. 18 in 1997 when the index dropped 8.91 percent.

The component index of the smaller Shenzhen Stock Exchange lost 9.29 percent, or 797.87 points to end at 7,790.82 points. Turnover on the two bourses totaled 198.9 billion yuan (24.8 billion U.S. dollars).

The Chinese stockmarkets are casinos, and somebody just rolled snake eyes. (Arguably western markets are casinos as well, but since the bear market of 2000 culled the day traders there has been less of that.) But what was really spooky was how this ricocheted around the world. After all, you expect the Chinese stockmarket to be volatile. But so was everything else:

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks had their worst day of trading since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks Tuesday, hurtling the Dow Jones industrials down more than 400 points on a worldwide tide of concern that the U.S. and Chinese economies are stumbling and that share prices have become overinflated.

The steepness of the market's drop, as well as its global breadth, signaled a possible correction after a long period of stable and steadily rising stock markets that had not been shaken by such a volatile day of trading in several years.

During the recent Chinese New Year holiday in Singapore I did the annual round of visiting-the-relatives with Mrs. Imagethief. At five different households I was treated to only two conversations: stocks and property. Yes, everybody was feeling pretty rich. Oddly enough, the last time all conversations in Singapore were about stocks and property was 1997. And we all remember what a grand year that was.

But, you know, this is probably just a hiccup. Now, what to do with all the money I've been saving in China? Stocks or property? Send your top-notch financial advice to Imagethief through the comment forms below. No Nigerian money scams, please.