A treasure cove of curiosity

Those of you who’ve read my blog for a while knows that I’ve been avidly investing in the stock market for the past two years. It helped me gain the perspective of the big picture as well as providing emotional stability by honing my heart in the constant onslaught of an emotional whirlpool. They say that money loss is second only to love loss and in some Asian countries, it might even trump love. I agree with that to certain extend. After all, I did survive losing $10,000 on book only to gain it back the next month. The ordeal left me feeling numb or not at all. Suffice to say that dips and rises in the market no longer affects my normal life anymore. I am beginning to be more and more like commander Data from StarTrek.

Not that I am happy about the downfall of Bear Sterns, IndyMac, CountryWide Financial and numerous others to come (Lehman brothers, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae), but the fact that companies valued at above 30 billion could disappear within a month amazes me. With a market in turmoil, you can no longer trust the public statements of any company. It seems to be a trend that the more that they are under water, the more they make the effort to announce that everything is fine. It isn’t rare to see a company announcing one thing and does exactly the opposite the next day (with the CEO promptly fired the following day of course).

I knew of these of course. The reaction has always been part of the possibilities. I just never had enough experience to know the percentage of such possibilities because I am still learning as I go along. It took guts and decisive action to cut losses against my emotions. It is also a great exercise in trusting myself, my decisions and my ability to read people. Throughout all this bullshit, I know I will come out stronger. I already am a little bit and I can feel just how much more I will be when all the strategic planning (That I’ve taken the pain to make) comes to fruition in 4 years.

I am like a kid, going up to the recently widowed, asking to perform an autopsy on her deceased husband.