Taking Stock

Ya that much awaited correction finally happened. Its been a carnage of sorts! And me, much like the many hopeful investors have been stuck with many good quality stocks, yet more than 20% down from their purchase prices. This mayhem has spared none. I mean, the sentiment is that bad - it seems every stock in the arena has been put on the 'SELL' counter. No buyers anywhere... :-(

Now I always thought stocks to be a hit-miss game. I mean, the story of a monkey throwing darts on the stock exchange page of a newspaper, to select the companies to buy, and coming out a winner is too well known to be recited. But as the concepts of Finance and economics trickled into my challenged brain, it started making sense. It started getting clear why some scripts went up and some went down, without actually having to play a poker strike on them. Fundamental analysis, technical analysis - all that started falling in place.

But the end result is - I'm still in medium losses, same as the gujju businessman in Mumbai who has no idea about the inherent strength of stocks yet buys-sells at the advise of his broker (and still thinks he's done a brilliant job)!

Mark Twain said it right: (rephrasing 'cos I don't know the exact words of course!)
'For every trade that happens on the Exchange, there is a BUYER and there is a SELLER. The funny thing is - both think that they have made a good deal!'

Of course there is more logic to this, but this just drives home the point!

But its about money, honey! Its about greed!
Thats the reason why we watch those shows on CNBC everytime (Udayan Mukherjee is a DUDE!), thats why a line of charts hypnotizes us, that's why a market crash gives us withdrawal symptoms, and still inspite of that, we remain hopeful... :-)

...till the next big rally....