Sea-Tax
Thanks. "Diversify" is a good tip in itself. I've played many markets over the years and that is, in fact, the only way I ever made (and kept) any real money. In the 90s I gave a broker $7K and he gave be back $12K after two years in a mutual fund of his choosing.
I played the Internet "bubble" in '99 and was up $40K on AOL and others, but didn't take anything off the table (wanted to collect those techs and "get in on the ground floor" long-term). After it burst, I instead netted only $3K (but my wife says that plus figure doesn't take into account the $9K CD with which I talked her into buying E-trade {it crashed} -- I say FASB prohibits such co-mingling). My broker called two years later -- seems ex-Net stock "Super-Duper" had "reached bottom" (was $140/now $70) and was poised to "take off." In one final, futile, floundering attempt to recoup my "investment," I plunged with $5K. It did take off -- straight to the cellar. I finally sold out at $4.
Anyway, what's that saying? "After crosses and losses, men grow humbler and wiser;" something like that. Having been justly and properly chastized (aka "snakebit" -- the local term for jinxed), my now subdued financial activities consist merely of an occasional check on CD rates at the local bank (is it 3.5 or 4%?). Basking in such quiet and sedate financial tranquility, my nerves are calmed.
But, I miss the old days -- the fast-paced trading, the affable (everybody's happy when making money) wheeler-dealer brokers taking chancy risks (with my money), the heady making of big (to me) money quickly, tracking the stocks, charting the charts, the ego-trip feeling that you're getting somewhere financially, and then...well; you know.
Still, when's the last time your stuffed-shirt banker told you a good dirty joke?
Originally posted by sea-tax
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I played the Internet "bubble" in '99 and was up $40K on AOL and others, but didn't take anything off the table (wanted to collect those techs and "get in on the ground floor" long-term). After it burst, I instead netted only $3K (but my wife says that plus figure doesn't take into account the $9K CD with which I talked her into buying E-trade {it crashed} -- I say FASB prohibits such co-mingling). My broker called two years later -- seems ex-Net stock "Super-Duper" had "reached bottom" (was $140/now $70) and was poised to "take off." In one final, futile, floundering attempt to recoup my "investment," I plunged with $5K. It did take off -- straight to the cellar. I finally sold out at $4.
Anyway, what's that saying? "After crosses and losses, men grow humbler and wiser;" something like that. Having been justly and properly chastized (aka "snakebit" -- the local term for jinxed), my now subdued financial activities consist merely of an occasional check on CD rates at the local bank (is it 3.5 or 4%?). Basking in such quiet and sedate financial tranquility, my nerves are calmed.
But, I miss the old days -- the fast-paced trading, the affable (everybody's happy when making money) wheeler-dealer brokers taking chancy risks (with my money), the heady making of big (to me) money quickly, tracking the stocks, charting the charts, the ego-trip feeling that you're getting somewhere financially, and then...well; you know.
Still, when's the last time your stuffed-shirt banker told you a good dirty joke?
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