Greetings Cousin Ike :
This is a true story ----
and I know how well you love a story .......
Here in my home town there is an elderly gentleman of my acquaintance who was a good friend of my father.
And when I say he is elderly, that's what I mean, as he's well over 80 ------ but he is no fool, nor is he a genius.
Amongst the few left alive of my fathers friends, he is the sole one who knows nothing about the stock market.
If you recall, Cousin Ike, from our past conversations, my father and most of his friends were avid stock and bond traders, long before it became a popular thing to do.
My early memories of the domed ticker and the maroon leather chairs with a view of a gentleman on a rolling ladder posting prices on the BIG chalk board .... these are vivid in my mind, even today .....
But back to the story -----
I saw Frank today at the grocery store with his lady friend (his wife died a very few years ago) ....and he inquired about my family and we had a nice visit.
He asked if I was still operating in the old family tradition of trading in the stock market and how he understood that it had been doing poorly for the past few weeks.
and
now comes the rest of the story .....
Frank rarely buy and rarely sells stocks ......
but he said that he'd sold out 2 months ago or so and was getting ready to buy back in Monday morning ------
and I laughed and asked him if he was still doing what my dad and all his friends used to joke with him about doing .......
and he said that he was ------
Simply put, Frank uses the Dallas News FRONT PAGE as a market timer ...
2 months ago the DMN had a top part of the front page saying how good the market was and how it was at a new high and etc, etc ...
so HE SOLD OUT
Today the DMN had a top part of the front page saying how everyone had "ticker shock" -- a picture of a floor trader with his head in his hands ----- etc
so now it's time to buy ---------
we laughed and he admitted that as he had first bought stocks in 1936 that this strategy had paid in the past and it was a rare time that he'd been out of the market for more than a year OR had held for more than a couple of years ......
Hope you and the thread enjoyed my story .......
don't know if there is a moral there or not .......
Regards ---- Nemer
EDIT ----
LOL about the story you just put on the post in front of this one ....
I'd NOT read it when I typed this .....
and that's the truth ........
still LOL ........... |
