# Goddamn Stock Market! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 21, 2001, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamn-stock-market/83008 "2001-09-21T13:58:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![pantom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/34f0e0/32.png) [@pantom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pantom)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamn-stock-market/83008/41 "2001-09-24T17:18:31Z")
Not to burst your bubble, **JC** , but the Monday after an options expiration Friday (which this is) usually goes in the opposite direction to that Friday. So today is no surprise. If we get follow through tomorrow, now that would be meaningful. Also, there’s the dumb money/smart money theory. States that Monday and early action (9:30 - 10 AM) is dumb money, while Friday and late day action (3 - 4 PM) is the smart money. So don’t get too excited yet. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamn-stock-market/83008/42 "2001-09-24T18:01:32Z")
I’ve always been overhead, so I have a soft spot for it. ---
**Author:** ![RalfCoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@RalfCoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RalfCoder)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamn-stock-market/83008/43 "2001-09-24T18:41:17Z")
My econ prof was right… Economics is common sense made difficult. I’m takin’ my pennies and nickels and a mason mar and a shovel, and headin’ for the back yard. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![RalfCoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@RalfCoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RalfCoder)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamn-stock-market/83008/44 "2001-09-24T18:50:45Z")
**JAR** , dammit, jar! ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamn-stock-market/83008/45 "2001-09-24T18:56:01Z")
It’s OK, **Ralf** , we understood you. Heck, I blew the coding up there and I’m not sweating it. And how can you have a soft spot for overhead, **drop**? Overhead is EVIL!!! ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamn-stock-market/83008/46 "2001-09-24T19:20:15Z")
I’m Engineering, that’s how. Although, with creative time sheets, I can become a Profit Center. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamn-stock-market/83008/47 "2001-09-24T19:48:13Z")
Engineering isn’t overhead…it’s product development. Speaking as a marketing guy I **LOVE** product development. Without it there’s nothing to sell. You design the product…I sucker people into giving us money for it. How much more beautiful can it be? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamn-stock-market/83008/48 "2001-09-24T20:26:46Z")
Marketing? Sheesh, we’re BOTH drones! Neither of us produces anything. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamn-stock-market/83008/49 "2001-09-24T20:46:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jonathan Chance \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Airman Doors, USAF \* > > \*\*Just hope the average shlub doesn’t panic and start a bank run or you’ll all be fucked. > > > > I’m broke anyway, so it wouldn’t hurt me too much. \*\* > > Yes, indeed. Poverty is a GREAT insulator from market fluctuations. > \*\* As is generally the case with me, that was a glib and unenlightened remark on my behalf. Like you’ve never heard any of those from me. 😉 On the other hand, if I can’t afford it now, why would I be able to afford it later? Poverty isn’t a great insulator, it just allows me to be indifferent, where you guys are ripping your hair out trying to cover your own asses. I think this whole situation really sucks, but I am unable to change anything. I hope none of you lose your shirts over this. I mean that. But I have no shirt to lose. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamn-stock-market/83008/50 "2001-09-25T00:38:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dropzone \* > \*\*Marketing? Sheesh, we’re BOTH drones! Neither of us produces anything. \*\* Hey, what? You got low self-esteem or something? I make money for my firm. In fact, I’m in charge of _everything_ that generates cash for my half of the business. Sure, I report to my publisher and she to the board but none of them could actually get anything done (which is why they sucked it up and hired me). So you’re in engineering (which I’m assuming gives your business guys something to sucker people with) and I’m in the business of persuading people why they want _things_ more than cash. I repeat, ain’t life grand? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamn-stock-market/83008/51 "2001-09-25T03:10:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jonathan Chance \* > \*\*1. So you’re in engineering (which I’m assuming gives your business guys something to sucker people with) > > 1. I’m in the business of persuading people why they want _things_ more than cash.\*\* 1. Well, it’s nice to see that SOMEBODY understands what I do for a living. And yes, I do consider myself as much in Marketing as I am in Production. With our clientele I need to be. 2. And that’s what my company does. Specifically, things that plug in and make pretty noises and colors. Husbands are easy. Marketing to wives is the challenge. What we need now is more business in the DC area (where I assume Hillsboro is) so that you and I can open an office there. Hey! That’s the first time in two weeks anybody on the planet said he thought moving to anywhere close to DC was a good idea! Damn, I must really miss VA. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamn-stock-market/83008/52 "2001-09-25T13:23:49Z")
And I miss anyone who says they’d move to Hillsboro (pop 94 and growing!)! I couldn’t see why ANYone wouldn’t realize that the folks who MAKE the product are exactly as important as the folks who SELL the product. Without engineers there’s nothing to sell. Without marketers there’s no sales. Either way leads to disaster. So come back to Virginia, **drop**. It’s like Brigadoon! ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamn-stock-market/83008/53 "2001-09-25T13:34:41Z")
Oh, jeeze, Morning Edition had a guy yesterday reading from Merriwether Lewis’ journal and he had an Albemarle County accent, just like the real guy! Brought tears to my eyes. I lived, basically, a farm away from where the Clark brothers grew up (Ivy, VA, pop 150 or so at the time), the Blue Ridge laid as a panorama out the front window. And snakes! You know the last time I saw a wild snake? And dirt around here is black and ACTUALLY WASHES OUT OF YOUR CLOTHES! What’s up with that? I must really have it bad if I’m getting nostalgic about copperheads and red dirt. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamn-stock-market/83008/54 "2001-09-25T13:39:26Z")
I can’t believe this all started as a rant about the market. Hillsboro is nestled in the Short Hill, just south of the Blue Ridge near Harpers Ferry. You want I should send you some dirt? Or you could fly in for the Halloween Party… [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=81654](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=81654) ---
**Author:** ![Kamikazee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Kamikazee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamikazee)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamn-stock-market/83008/55 "2001-09-25T14:33:44Z")
If you bought $1000 worth of Nortel stock one year ago, it would be worth $49 today. If you bought $1000 worth of Miller (the beer, not the stock) one year ago, drank all the beer, and traded in the cans for the dime deposit, you would have $158 today. … My advice to you is to start drinking heavily… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2001, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamn-stock-market/83008/56 "2001-09-26T01:52:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kamikazee \* > \*\*If you bought $1000 worth of Nortel stock one year ago, it > would be worth $49 today. If you bought $1000 worth of > Miller (the beer, not the stock) one year ago, drank all the > beer, and traded in the cans for the dime deposit, you > would have $158 today. > > … My advice to you is to start drinking heavily… > > 🙂 \*\* Boy, this has been making the rounds. With your beverage of choice switching. Are deposits on cans really ten cents? Nortel 52 week hi low is $70.062 and $4.76. ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2001, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamn-stock-market/83008/57 "2001-09-26T02:24:21Z")
I notice the Dow’s up another 56 points today. I guess that’s a good thing. Certainly doesn’t affect me directly, as I don’t really have any money to speak of. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2001, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamn-stock-market/83008/58 "2001-09-26T12:48:46Z")
Here’s hoping we’ve seen the bottom. A slow period of steady growth leading to the reclamation of 10,000 would be a damn good thing. ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2001, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamn-stock-market/83008/59 "2001-09-27T03:43:55Z")
Also, another factor is that this is towards the end of a quarter. There is usually a lot of downward volatility as brokers and investors dump worthless stock and buy up potential gainers in order to improve the bottom line. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/goddamn-stock-market/83008.md?page=2)