Lighter side of deer, sadder side of stocks

Richard · Sep 20, 2001

I have a couple of accounts with folks in my local Congressman's office and one of them sent the following to me:

> Just a point of interest:
>
> If you bought $1000 worth of Nortel stock one year ago, it would now be worth $49.

>f you bought $1000 worth of Budweiser (the beer, not the stock) one year ago, drank all the beer, and traded in the cans for the nickel deposit, you would have $79.

> My advice to you is to start drinking heavily and recycle.

Though I in fact, don't drink beer, I DO concern myself with investments and therefor thought this was cute.

ejb · Sep 20, 2001

2 years ago I sold about a bunch of stocks to buy my JD5410 and other implements and equipment/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif...in retrospect, I wish I had sold all of them/w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

Richard · Sep 20, 2001

During the "get to know your customer" process, one thing I always try to impress on everyone is that no one knows all the answers and I for one, will take a bit of luck ANY day of the week!!

Be happy where you are, had you NOT sold them then, you would have a JD2705 and 2 1/2 foot brushcutter /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

(as ascertained by dividing tractor & 5 foot cutter by half)
/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Gatorboy · Sep 20, 2001

I have a BIG 'L' on my forehead. I have made a $600,000 mistake by not selling my stock back in January. My only hope now is that the economy will turn around and I the company I have stock in goes back up! I would love to build a house on my property.

Regards,
Dave "Gatorboy" Hoffmann
Fallston, Maryland

TerryinMD · Sep 20, 2001

Oh yes - I think that a lot of us have laments about the stock market, mutual funds, 401Ks, etc.

The company I work for issues stock options each year and for the past three years (obtw, my tenure!!!) the stock price goes down after the options are issued. If I were to exercise my options, I could declare bankruptcy!!

With the current market conditions, I will never be able to retire. I might be able to in 9 or 10 yrs and possibly collect SS ( i.e. - don't trust the Government to pay me back). But who can live on SS. I'm considering becoming a concession vendor. Go out on my own. Just need to come up with a little capital. Anyone want to buy some slighty used teenagers. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Gatorboy · Sep 20, 2001

I know the story all too well. I have stock options with my company. We went public in June '00, and had the biggest IPO in the history of a technology stock. We raised $1.2 Billion on our IPO! Went out at $36, and closed day one around $89. During our lockup we hit a high of $114.75 and I was a mulit-millionaire on paper. In January, when our lockup expired, the price was -- what I thought -- just a measly $25, so I only sold a fraction of my shares. Well, now we are at $1.75 and I am just sick.

I have learned a very valuable lesson.

Regards,
Dave "Gatorboy" Hoffmann
Fallston, Maryland

Richard · Sep 20, 2001

It indeed has been a tough ride. Everyone has their version of the pain.

One hard part is spending most every day talking to people and virtually EVERYONE has the same story...starts to get depressing...

My wife wonders why I get so much fun from driving Brutus around terrorizing stumps and the like...

Better the stumps than the dog/cat!

cp1969 · Sep 20, 2001

Yeah, but..........did you buy the options with your own cash, or were they given to you by the company? There's a big difference between actually buying high and selling low versus not cashing in on a freebie.

Gatorboy · Sep 20, 2001

I had BOUGHT all of my options and filed an 83(b).

So, what I did was HOLD and not sell. Currently there is a big 'L' on my forehead.

It seems so obvious now, but at the time no one (well, maybe a few) would have predicted that the market would have come down so far.

Regards,
Dave "Gatorboy" Hoffmann
Fallston, Maryland