|
|
|
|
|
|
|
quotes in the late afternoon. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I told my wife, who works in the office suite with me, that I thought it had to be a misquote. Other stocks I own move 20 or more points up or down but not Lucent. When I finally got online at home and discovered the earnings warning, I was momentarily shocked. For a while that evening, I noticed I was not paying attention to the outer world, just my thoughts about the miserable day with the market. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I couldn't believe my bad luck to have bought more shares just before this news was released. And yet there was really no possible way I could have known of it. It was not as if I had made a bad judgment in buying, as the stock had gone down along with everything else that day and it looked like a decent buy. What looked like a nice potential gain turned out to be a big loss. It would have been bad enough to have the stock drop 20 points from where I left it when I went to the office with just the shares I already owned. But what added insult to injury was that I had had the misfortune and terrible timing to buy more just before it tanked in after-hours trading! It seemed like a cruel hoax. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Talk about not sleeping at night. Between Lucent and my other fast-moving tech stocks all suffering gigantic losses, it was probably the worst day of net worth loss for me in the market that I can remember. I am much more invested now than I was back in the crash of 1987 or other major corrections since then. But that's the game: If you're gonna play, you have to take the bad luck with the good. So, the Zen master might ask, "How do you become illuminated at moment when you learn Lucent dropped 20 points?" |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Attachment to our money and fear of losing it makes it tough to take reasonable risks with our trades. I am much more willing to invest large amounts of money in stocks than I am gambling it away in Las Vegas. I simply will not let myself look at chips as "just chips." I am always aware of exactly how much each chip is worth and therefore am never willing to adopt the gambler's mentality of taking big risks. I will take risks with stocks but not at the craps table, even when I am rolling the dice and on a hot streak. So, I usually end up making money for everyone around me by hitting a lot of numbers but don't end up with much for myself, despite holding the dice for 15 or 20 minutes when on a good roll. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This attachment to the implied value of the money and my not being willing to unduly risk it became very clear when I was at a Monte Carlo night party. This is where they have all the games of a real casino but it's just play. I found myself holding back from betting |
|
|
|
|
|