even my barber
I got a haircut Friday. It’s usually a traumatic event. I’ve never enjoyed going to the barber. I had one barber I loved – her name was Victoria and she worked in a fancy high-end spa-type Manhattan place. She was perfect – she didn’t ask me what I wanted, she just told me what I needed. I had other barbers who were OK – Don and Dale back in my hometown, the team at the Manezh in Moscow, and my current guy, Mike.
Mike does a good haircut. He deals with a lot of overstressed back-office guys like me, since I work in a downtown skyscraper filled with the stress monkeys – Morgan Stanley, Prudential, Deutsche Back, AIG. It’s one of those old-style barbershops where you get a hot shave, get slapped around and leave feeling refreshed – a man among manly men.
But let me tell you – Mike is worried. He’s been working there a long time, and he’s seen the ups and downs of Wall Street. A barber to Wall Street types hears a lot of gas, and frankly passes a lot of gas. That didn’t come out right. He gossips a bit. Mike wants to make sure everyone has a tip.
He wasn’t happy last week. “Times are not looking good,” he told me. “I’m bracing for a rough time.” We commiserated. I mentioned that I work in corporate governance and audit and he snorted. “Best of times and worst of times for you, then, huh?” he said. Then he told me about his position on the market. He thinks it’s time to get out.
Joe Kennedy got out of the stock market right after his shoe shine guy gave him a tip. But here’s my question: when my shoe shine guy – my barber – tells me it’s time to get out, is it time to get back in? I’m thinking it is…
photo credit: Wm Jas
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you're right.
Heh. I worked at the most exclusive country club in Greenwich, CT for a summer (my husband worked – and lived – there throughout college). One where all the Steve Forbses and Bushes and old money and hedge fund big-shots are members or come as guests. The Mexican locker room guys were always whispering excitedly about investing tips they got or inside information they overheard.
None of them profited much from it.
Barbers and shoe-shine guys know everything – pay attention!
Think of it this way – maybe your barber knows how to “cut” his losses – or “trim” profits. I would venture it is NOT time to hop back in at full scale, maybe just bits.
As this (now much more than) crisis unfolds it only gets worse. We may still have more than 30% to fall in the long run. Until then perhaps it's time to time the swings with simple 50 and 200-day moving averages.
Long-long term? not yet – the market and its big guns HAVE ONLY JUST BEGUN PUKING BLOOD. and i mean PUKING!
This, along with a the comments, suggest real panic and fear is setting in at all levels of society. This is a good sign. It doesn't mean this is over, just that it is close to being over. Nothing wrong with finding a few top tier companies beaten down and snaging a few shares. Maybe Microsoft or Boeing…not that I have, but I am interested.
Any kind of drastic tip like this that comes with earth-shattering stuff like “this is like nothing we've ever seen” or “this will change the market forever” is all hot air. Hopefully something good will come of this, but I doubt it. Things will get better and in 15 years the same things will happen again with different companies/industries. Better be ready for it.
Any kind of drastic tip like this that comes with earth-shattering stuff like “this is like nothing we've ever seen” or “this will change the market forever” is all hot air. Hopefully something good will come of this, but I doubt it. Things will get better and in 15 years the same things will happen again with different companies/industries. Better be ready for it.