Re: OT stock market
Subject: RE: OT Stock market... From: Net Llama [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 09:10:11 -0700 (PDT) To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- Kurt Wall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: It's hard watching your hard earned dollars slip into nothingness. As I left work this evening, my normally cold-as-ice-asshole-boss simply looked terrible. I stopped Try working at one of those companies whose stock is now worthless. If you're lucky enough to still be working there, that is. Indeed. As cold cras as it may sound, i have absolutely no sympathy for those who have lost a fortune on stock. A dose of reality would do people alot of good. Any stock advisor who truly believed that VA Linux was worth $250/share 2 years ago, or believes that its worth $1.40/share today is a complete utter fool. Anyone who thought that putting their life's savings into stock (any stock) isn't terribly bright either. Stocks have always been a volotile unpredictable game. Even a fool like me, who hasn't a clue about choosing stocks knows that its always wise to diversify investments. I learned that lesson working in the brokerage biz a few years ago. Didn't stop me from investing though ;-) Needless to say, I lost a bit of the green lately to the market, but as long as I hold on.. Well, that's the plan anyhoo. What is the old saying...what goes up must surely come down? I hope the reverse it true as well! Marie ___ http://linux.nf -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives, Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, Etc -http://linux.nf/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
Re: OT stock market
Marie Bennington AKA Calamity wrote: I learned that lesson working in the brokerage biz a few years ago. Didn't stop me from investing though ;-) Needless to say, I lost a bit of the green lately to the market, but as long as I hold on.. Well, that's the plan anyhoo. What is the old saying...what goes up must surely come down? I hope the reverse it true as well! Marie Howdy, Calamity! Good to see you're still kickin' around. How's that wayward husband o' yours? Blessed be, Kurt -- Man belongs wherever he wants to go. -- Wernher von Braun ___ http://linux.nf -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives, Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, Etc -http://linux.nf/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
Re: OT stock market OT TID
On Tue, 4 Sep 2001 07:46:40 -0600 Kurt Wall [EMAIL PROTECTED] cleverly noted: Howdy, Calamity! Good to see you're still kickin' around. How's that wayward husband o' yours? = Uh-oh.., Calamity's back?? Prolly here to talk down to all the men, bein' real condescending and... woops... is that my wife callin' again. gotta go ;o) Mike -- You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline - it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer. - Frank Zappa _ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ___ http://linux.nf -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives, Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, Etc -http://linux.nf/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
Re: OT stock market
Marie Bennington AKA Calamity wrote: I learned that lesson working in the brokerage biz a few years ago. Didn't stop me from investing though ;-) Needless to say, I lost a bit of the green lately to the market, but as long as I hold on.. Well, that's the plan anyhoo. What is the old saying...what goes up must surely come down? I hope the reverse it true as well! Marie Hi Calamity, where yers bin ? Nice to see you arond again, how's the old fella grin... ___ http://linux.nf -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives, Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, Etc -http://linux.nf/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
RE: OT Stock market...
It's hard watching your hard earned dollars slip into nothingness. As I left work this evening, my normally cold-as-ice-asshole-boss simply looked terrible. I stopped Try working at one of those companies whose stock is now worthless. If you're lucky enough to still be working there, that is. and we talked a bit... probably the first time I heard him speak from his heart in over 5 years. It was all about money and BOY was it heart wrenching... his retirement is all but gone. Talk about a lost soul. I know and work with people that have lost 100's of thousands of dollars in the last year or so... Hmm. Where one's treasure is, there is one's heart. It *is* sad. Regards, Kurt ___ http://linux.nf -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives, Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, Etc -http://linux.nf/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
Re: OT Stock market...
On Thursday 30 August 2001 08:53 pm, Net Llama wrote: snip The running black humor out in the Bay area these days is to use the highways as the barometer of the health of the economy. Taking a look at any freeway would indicate how many people were unemployed. Apparently 3 years ago, it took close to 3 hours to drive about 50 miles from Sunnyvale to Fremont. Now you can do the distance in about 70 minutes on a bad day. I've lived here (not far from the lllama, so it seems) for about 12 years (partly to escape the crowded freeways in LA) and I can tell you without hesitation that 3 years ago, the traffic on 280 on the middle of the peninsula was non-existent in the morning. Within 6 months, traffic slowed to a crawl on the same section of freeway. It has now decreased to busy but above the speed limit. I spend every day working in a veritable blood bath. This is far from over. Those with stocks are the lucky ones. They are just losing money. Many more are losing their jobs, doing what they truly loved. I've now survived 3 rounds of layoffs. I wish all i had to loose was some money in stocks. It's not just in IT. = Lonni J. Friedman [EMAIL PROTECTED] snip -- Tony Alfrey [EMAIL PROTECTED] I'd rather be sailing ___ http://linux.nf -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives, Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, Etc -http://linux.nf/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
RE: OT Stock market...
--- Kurt Wall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: It's hard watching your hard earned dollars slip into nothingness. As I left work this evening, my normally cold-as-ice-asshole-boss simply looked terrible. I stopped Try working at one of those companies whose stock is now worthless. If you're lucky enough to still be working there, that is. Indeed. As cold cras as it may sound, i have absolutely no sympathy for those who have lost a fortune on stock. A dose of reality would do people alot of good. Any stock advisor who truly believed that VA Linux was worth $250/share 2 years ago, or believes that its worth $1.40/share today is a complete utter fool. Anyone who thought that putting their life's savings into stock (any stock) isn't terribly bright either. Stocks have always been a volotile unpredictable game. Even a fool like me, who hasn't a clue about choosing stocks knows that its always wise to diversify investments. A bit over a year ago, when i was job hunting a fairly large .COM company made me an offer that was largely comprised of stock options. I turned them down with the explanation that I could not in good conscience accept any job where my financial well-being was dependent on the whims of clueless investors. Their arrogant response was that accepting the position would show that I had faith in the company. My final comment to them was that they should be showing that they had faith in me, by making me an offer that ensured my financial stability. Needless to say i didn't take the position, and now i'm stuck in the midst of the Silicon Valley blood bath. At least, for now, as long as i have a job, i know that my salary is stable, and not dependent on the eminant penny stock status of my employer. = Lonni J. Friedman [EMAIL PROTECTED] Linux FAQ Step-by-step help:http://netllama.ipfox.com . __ Do You Yahoo!? Get email alerts NEW webcam video instant messaging with Yahoo! Messenger http://im.yahoo.com ___ http://linux.nf -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives, Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, Etc -http://linux.nf/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
Re: OT Stock market...
On Thursday 30 August 2001 10:12 am, Jerry McBride dropped these nuggets of information: My god, what have we done? I gotta' tell you guys and gals... my heart of hearts is predicting doom. Where it's comming from I'm not real sure. Is it NAFTA? Cyclic changes in the market? Who knows. Just be sure you're ready for it, though. It's gonna' be tough. It's greed, short-sightedness and over zealous investments. As the old saying goes, hindsight is 20/20. 2 years ago everyone wanted everything to do with technology, now, well, when the bottom has fallen out, everyone can look back and say I knew broadband was't gonna fly with everyone and What was I thinking when I dumped (no pun intended) into toiletpaper.com and wonder why they invested in them. They can now see that it wasn't a long term strategy just hoping to get a quick ride to riches mostly. That is my opinion. It's worth what you paid for it. Also, personally I have no money in the market at all. Well I have a 401(k) but that won't be touched for at least 30 more years. And I have a small savings account. I don't make much with them but I don't lose either. --Tom Wilson ___ http://linux.nf -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives, Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, Etc -http://linux.nf/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
Re: OT Stock market...
Jerry McBride wrote: Well... A tough day for wall street. Right about now, all those nice certs in my stock protfolio are about as worthless to me as a 12 pack of toiletpaper... but too rough to enjoy... Say what? ;') Thank GOD, I converted most all of it to other investments earlier this year. I actually listened to my wife for a change and stopped being greedy and exposed in the market. My losses hurt, but at the least I still have something left to think about. It's hard watching your hard earned dollars slip into nothingness. As I left work this evening, my normally cold-as-ice-asshole-boss simply looked terrible. I stopped and we talked a bit... probably the first time I heard him speak from his heart in over 5 years. It was all about money and BOY was it heart wrenching... his retirement is all but gone. Talk about a lost soul. I know and work with people that have lost 100's of thousands of dollars in the last year or so... My god, what have we done? I gotta' tell you guys and gals... my heart of hearts is predicting doom. Where it's comming from I'm not real sure. Is it NAFTA? Cyclic changes in the market? Who knows. Just be sure you're ready for it, though. It's gonna' be tough. If what my mom told me when I was a kid... that $600.00 that Bush wants to send me may not be enough to buy bread and milk next year. Sorry. I'm usually a lot more upbeat than this... Good night and God bless. -- ** Registered Linux User Number 185956 http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=ensafe=offgroup=linux 9:50pm up 3 days, 22:23, 2 users, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00 ___ I'll state first and foremost that I'm not qualified to voice an opinion on the stock market, financial strategies or someone else's investments. I do believe that this downturn will have a rebound though. Maybe a little slower than the first peak, but assuredly much steadier. People are not going to give up broadband and go back to modems, give up their office applications in exchange for pencil and paper, or any other type of backwards progress. Failed dot-com's and the like are providing fire sale prices on hardware that will still require trained, certified people to configure and maintain. There's an inherent self-perpetuation that is sometimes forgotten about during depressed periods. The people that recognize that it ain't all over with are the ones that buy at bargain prices and hold on for the next peak. It won't be like it was, but it also won't be like it is. -- Andrew Mathews 8:45pm up 3 days, 3:12, 3 users, load average: 1.00, 1.05, 1.07 Lots of folks are forced to skimp to support a government that won't. ___ http://linux.nf -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives, Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, Etc -http://linux.nf/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
Re: OT Stock market...
On Thursday 30 August 2001 10:12, Jerry McBride wrote: | A tough day for wall street. Right about now, all those nice certs | in my stock protfolio | are about as worthless to me as a 12 pack of toiletpaper... but too | rough to enjoy... | | Say what? ;') not to put too fine a point on it, and not to minimize your loss in any way, but it has been highly obvious for close to five years now that the equities market was being driven almost entirely by fantasy. consider that at the end of 1999, va linux was selling for more than $250 per share -- and it had never earned a penny, had no prediction of when it would earn a penny, and had no prediction of *how* it would earn that penny. several of my friends and i remarked at my wedding on october 25, 1997, how happy we were to have gotten out of equities. the market crashed on october 27. we all gradually got back in, but in stuff for the long haul, and not stuff that was based on pipedreams and daily stock following. in fact, most of us bought during the crash itself (i, on my honeymoon, didn't). interestingly, some index fund stuff i have has consistently made money. it was worth more on paper a year ago, but not enough to cover the taxes had i sold it then. still, i've made a good 15 percent or so. point is, the market is not a crap game, and indistry analysts and securities analysts are little different from the island women who appear on late night television offering their fortune-telling services for $2.95 per minute, except that the jamaican ladies are cheaper than the analysts. just a little while ago, on the other list, i coincidentally posted this, in a thread there: On Thursday 30 August 2001 19:43, Les Bell wrote: | Yup, except for the obligatory doomsaying quote from an industry | analyst who is close to completely clueless. Really, how such | people manage to keep their jobs, let alone garner the money and | influence they do, is utterly incomprehensible to me. industry analyst is the one profession whose practitioners are *never* required to be correct, not even occasionally, not even in keeping with the principles of probability (which state that one of the novelty toy 8-balls will probably be correct some of the time). there is no need for evidence beyond looking at what industry analysts were saying a year ago, and how much wealth has disappeared since then because people believed them. (now they're looking for places to put the blame, the chief one being the economic downturn, apparently hoping that no one notices that the reason there is an economic downturn is that they were selling boxes of air at ever higher prices for more than a decade, all the while appearing on television and, in their role as industry analysts, saying what bargains these boxes of air were.) grr. | his retirement is all | but gone. Talk about a lost soul. I know and work with people that | have lost 100's | of thousands of dollars in the last year or so... | | My god, what have we done? you haven't done anything, unless you cash out now. if your boss is still bossing, then his retirement isn't all but gone -- it's lost a lot of paper value; because he doesn't need to cash out now. and if he invested in boxes of air, then he wasn't as concerned about his retirement as he should have been. and he started investing very late in the game -- anyone who invested in anything that's even close to the indices beginning as late as 1995 is ahead, considerably. take ibm -- it closed at about $100 today. it closed at about $100 just about anytime in 1995. but since then it's had a 2:1 split, so that 1995 $100 is actually $200 now. microsoft is selling for less than it was, but it has had a split as well. (so, for what it's worth, has red hat, so anybody who got in at the ipo price has lost only half his money -- and anyone who got in at a higher price should limit his investments to savings accounts.) now, consider some other things before deciding that the economy has gone to hell. interest rates are way down. that makes things like home refinancing very worthwhile, and because home values have risen it means that refinancing very often comes along with a bunch of cheap cash. a way to find one's way out of an investment nightmare can be, believe it or not, more investment. there's a very simple trick to this, called dollar cost averaging, and here's how it works: you decide to spend a certain amount of money each month on investments -- diversified investments, i might add; a mix of high-quality debt, maybe some growth equities, and certainly some high-quality equities. and you buy that dollar amount, rather than a fixed number of shares, each month. the result is that your average cost per share drops. a simple example: i set aside $60 per month to buy caldera. first month this gets me 10 shares @$6. second month it gets me 20 shares at $3. third month it gets me 30 shares at $2. fourth month it gets me 60
