Is It Over – Can I Come Out Now?

August 10th, 2011

Is my money still there?

Last Wednesday I had a fairly respectable and profitable stock portfolio of about $11,900. I was starting to dream about breaking my mental $12,000 barrier. Thursday ended with me looking glumly at $11,380. What’s going on, I wondered. Friday made me feel a little more confident as I finished at $11,430 and I spent quite a relaxed weekend. Just as well, because I needed all my strength for Monday when I watched things change dramatically. The day ended at $10,800 and I spent a sleepless night.

Came Tuesday

I’d prefer to forget all about Tuesday. I sat and watched the Dow dropping like a stone, trying not to convert the Dow into my personal losses, not an easy thing to do. Later I went to the kitchen, made cup of coffee, added a shot of Johnnie Walker and staggered back to the TV set. The Dow was rising as though it was on an elastic string connected to heaven. I sat mesmerized, forgot the coffee and switched to Johnnie Walker straight. I went to bed happy.

Now it’s Wednesday

I waited for the market to open with bated breath and I wasn’t surprised to see it plunge. The truth is that I still don’t believe what I saw at the end of Tuesday. It’s stopped yo-yoing now and has settled down around the 10,900 index. Remember how we prayed to help it climb over the 12,000 level.

What I have learned about the stock exchange

• There is no such an animal as a stock exchange expert.

• No-one really understands the stock exchange.

• All the analysts, forecasters, advisers, and consultants do not know what is happening. They are as surprised and as confused as I am.

• Everyone is very nervous.

• No one knows what to do – should I buy or sell?

The stock exchange experts

The reaction of the experts to the current chaos is fascinating. About 50 percent of them are shouting “See, I told you it was going to crash!” and about 50 percent of them are shouting, “Hey, this is a great time to buy!” There is so much hysterical advice going around that it has all meshed into one grey mass of sound and nothing can actually be heard, which is just as well.

Why am I here?

The most important thing I have learned is that I should not be within a 100 miles of the nearest stock exchange. Neither should I have a penny invested in a share whether it be blue-chip or any kind of chip. I should never read the stock exchange news and I should never even talk about the stock exchange. I should leave all that to the experts, right?

So where should I be?

A casino is a good place or if there isn’t one nearby, standing next to a lotto stall. A regular automatic ticket on a 6 out of 49 Lotto draw will give me a chance of 1 in about 13 million. I’m not getting that on the stock exchange!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 10th, 2011 at 9:51 am and is filed under Business, Economy, Finance, Money, Personal / Internet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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