Stocks and buying them

jackfinarelli · Oct 3, 2008

I would not buy GM stock unless I used money that I would equally be willing to play with at a roulette table.

With the pressure building to allow more US offshore drilling, I'd be looking to buy companies that provide the oil field services - - the rigs and the platforms and the people - - to do that kind of thing. I think there are going to be a LOT of wells drilled in the Gulf of Mexico and off the east coast of the US in the next 10 years.

waterytart · Oct 3, 2008

The Wachovia soap opera. The monthly unemployment report. The House re-vote.

What I want stock in today is the bar the CNBC production folks head to when they're done.

Birdscribe · Oct 3, 2008

EE94 said:

substitute sportswriter for shoe shiner

Lessons Learnt "1929 Crash, How did Joe Kennedy Predict it"
Chris Farrington
Week 3, 082

The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Crash of ‘29, was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States. The extent and size of the crash was so large that the Dow Jones Industrial Average didn’t return to pre-1929 levels until 1954, some 25 years later. In 1929 the Wall Street stock market was experiencing the largest bull market in history. This was fuelled by the number of Americans investing in the market, many of them with borrowed money. During this period most investors were extremely optimistic of the market and believed that it could run for many more years, but one man knew better. Joseph Kennedy, a stock market speculator, also known as the father of John F. Kennedy was a prominent stock market trader on Wall Street.

One day Joe Kennedy was having his shoes shined in Grand Central Station. As he was sitting and reading his newspaper, the young man who was shining his shoes told Joe that he had bought some stock for himself, which meant that he now had himself a slice of the American dream. This conversation convinced Joe that the bull market of the 1920’s was over. He reasoned, “if the shoe shine boy is in the market, who is left to buy? If everyone is in the market, there is nowhere for it to go but down.” That same day Joe went into his office and started selling off all his investments, one week later Joe was completely out of the market. It was 2 months after this day that on October 24, 1929 chaos started to take over the markets. It is this crash that makes us aware of the circumstances that can arise when you follow the crowd. As Gordon Gekko quoted to Bud Fox, “You want to know why fund managers can’t beat the S&P 500, its because they are sheep and sheep get slaughtered.” Don’t always follow the crowd, as most of the time it is the crowd that is doing the following
Click to expand...

Um, yeah. About that...

The things Joe Kennedy did in the Wild West, unregulated stock market of the 1920s would be called "insider trading" today.. that is, if they weren't called "market manipulation."

Pump-and-dump stock pools and blatant insider trading were two of Kennedy's more noble endeavors in the market.

And yes, technically, those shenanigans were legal at that time, which is why FDR's decision to make Kennedy the first chairman of the fledgling SEC was the proverbial fox guarding the henhouse.

In this context, the shoeshine boy story always cracks me up.

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Stocks and buying them

jackfinarelli Well-Known Member

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Stocks and buying them

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