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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (42668)	2/24/2001 7:15:46 PM
From: Sam Citron	Respond to of 70976

Indeed. I don't mean to imply that speculation and buying on margin are necessarily "bad". In fact most markets would be illiquid were it not for speculators willing to risk their capital in the hope of quick gain. The point is to be aware of the risks and to know how they may be diminished without offsetting the gain as well.

To: TimF who wrote (42668)	2/26/2001 1:07:47 PM
From: mitch-c	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

You and many others. The chapter heading for that particular lesson is "The Difference between Investment and Speculation". With a section on the dangers of overuse of margin buying. Folks, that is PRECISELY (and I mean verbatim) the conversation that my grandfather had with me over fifteen years ago as I started an IRA. I rank it as THE single most valuable lesson I have ever learned about capital markets. He had experienced the 1929 crash and the subsequent decade of economic malaise we call the Great Depression. In a nutshell, he blamed uninformed speculators using highly leveraged margin accounts for the collapse. His strongest emphasis was never to borrow money to invest. I have not - and never will. Best of luck to those who do. - Mitch