On E-Trade, the updates are not as quick, which allows me to believe that it's not that bad (assuming that I'm not acutely aware that the final tally today will be Sh*t.
Ah, WTH. I invested only money I could afford to lose. One of the stocks I bought (recently) was the parent company that manufactures Lysol. It has lost a little, but about 1/2 what other stocks are doing.
A pharmaceutical that I bought is about 3% down (although up 60% since I bought it). I'm not prescient, just lucky in my timing.
Also, Roku is up 90% since I bought it. The rest of the stocks are down, or in the process of going down.
I do have a certain confidence in the SEC stepping in. The automatic controls already did once today, after an opening panic sell-off. Both parties will insist on it, as they have voters heavily invested in the markets (teachers and other unions, old people, universities and other NGOs, just to mention a few). I'm not imagining a total melt-down at this time.
And, yet...
The thing is, we could handle bad news. We could handle a pandemic. Humans have lived through worse.
It's the uncertainty that is causing such unease. Not knowing is worse than the worst news.
And, we have uncertainty about so many things:
- The election - will the Senile Old White Guy prevail over the Old Commie? Will the Medically Frail Old White Woman flim-flam both out of their rightful due? Will Trump pull off the re-election, despite the Deep State, Media, and all the other Leftists putting their thumb on the scales?
- COVID-19, as we now call Coronavirus, is making inroads in EU and the USA. The main problems are: returning cruise passengers, international travelers who decide their right to fly in the face of "not feeling good" beats the safety of the rest of us, and "those who should be horsewhipped" - those who have been TOLD to stay home, but decided the rules don't apply to privileged people like them.
- The economy - see above.
My fear is that a "perfect storm" of all of those factors will bring us down. Each one could be dealt with, but, all at once...
Almost two years ago I took the wife and kidlings to Israel. I hadn't been in over 20 years. The wife (and obviously the kids) - never. It was time. I have friends and family there, and since the kids are Jewish it was time to have them see our spiritual homeland.
ReplyDeleteOn the flight over was a woman next to me, hacking her lungs up with this deep, wet, gurgling cough the entire time. I was ready to kill her... she got us all sick, and probably everyone around her within ten feet (if I was a betting man).
Must be nice to have money you can afford to lose![It's OK, I'm not being resentful, I'm quite happy with what I have.]
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind that the resale shops were our Bloomingdale's, my husband made an art out of cooking with on-sale meats, and we have only ONCE taken a trip that didn't involve our staying with relatives (other than business trips).
ReplyDeleteBut, yeah, a lot of that stash is pure luck.
The world keeps not ending. Pretty annoying, world
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