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Grey Today: Black Cat or Black Tuesday

Grey Today

Black Cat or
Black Tuesday

by Grey Brendle

It is probably a universal truism to say we all have superstitions, or, at least one. Even for people who say they do not, there is something they do routinely to help the outcome of an action along.

Superstitions are very much alive in sports. Barry Bonds always kisses his gold cross necklace after he hits a home run. Roger Clemens visits Monument Park to touch the head of the Babe Ruth statue before he pitches in Yankee Stadium. He also gave each of his children names that begin with the letter K, which stands for strikeout in baseball.

Even in my high school the star basketball player did not change socks the entire year, for fear of bad luck. The same socks stayed in his locker, never washed. Made for a lot of jokes and nose pinching, when he dressed for the game.

One might say these are trivial. While we all take our sports seriously, it is not about world ending activities. There would never be such in something like the stock market. That much discussed and maligned institution, holder of much of our money.

Au Contraire mon frere. Or to be gender fair “mon cheri.”

On the contrary, the market is rife with little, or some not so little, peccadillos. One friend only looks at his holdings after hours. He says he can be more objective if he cannot do anything, while he thinks about his positions situation. If the market was open he says he might be tempted to make rash decisions. The “off hour” perusing works for him.

Someone I worked with years ago had quite a little plan to make money in the stock market. He would buy 10 stocks, mostly less than a dollar, called penny stocks, of companies he felt had potential. He put them “in a drawer” for a year, his description. Like Al Gore’s “lock box” for our social security. My friend meant he put it out of his mind for a year.

At the end of the year, to the day, he sold them all. He said there would be 2 or 3 that went out of business. In the middle there would be 5, or so, that either stayed about the same or made a little gain. The other 2 would do really well. He said he always made more than the banks paid in interest. That’s a little extreme, but it seemed to work for him.

Personally, I have this thing that stocks do not do well on Friday. There is no basis for proving this, it’s just how I feel. In fact I don’t even check my situation on Friday. There are the folks that never trade the first 30 minutes of a trading day. I have never seen that proved out in research, but there are many who will not do it.

H.L. Hunt some years ago, in an interview, was asked how he made so much money in the stock market. He said, “I always got out before I should have.” That always helped me. There have been a few of my stocks that doubled and sold for a profit. Then went on to triple. Mr. Hunt meant to feel good about what you did, not feel bad about what might have been.

Many steer away from a stock with a symbol that is just too cutesy. Like Harley Davidson’s HOG. Please! The Boston Beer symbol is SAM. You know, for Samuel Adams. Too cute by half! The best ones tell you immediately who they are; Google is GOOG. Bank of America is BAC. That’s ok. But, Coco Cola’s is KO. That’s goofy. Looks like it could be Muhammad Ali if he had been on the big board. Talk about a symbol with meaning.

And then we have Hugh Hefner. All of us have an opinion of what he contributed to our way of life. One might think he freed mores and opened a road to an enlightened life. Or, maybe put a lot of folks on a slippery slope to the man with the red horns and no problem with his heating bill.

But, did you know about his contribution to the world of stocks? Years ago it was commonplace when buying stocks to get the actual certificate. In fact, the clipping coupons term came from certificates that payed dividends that were clipped from the paper and presented to a bank for payment.

When Playboy stock was first issued in 1971, the certificate was personally signed by Hugh Hefner and had a vignette of a naked Playboy centerfold. Many people bought one share as a collector’s item. It became too costly to issue a fancy piece of paper for such a small purchase. Those early certificates sell for about $275. Compare that to a share of Playboy stock, which was less than $13 back then.

Now, if you want one share of a stock and want the certificate it will cost between $50-150, plus the actual stock price.

Thanks Hugh! For sticking your finger where it doesn’t belong. I don’t own a grotto. Have never seen his grotto. And, have probably crested that age hill where it doesn’t matter.

Oh, well!

Grey Brendle is a retired businessman. He moved to Beaufort in 2007 with his wife Lisa, and claims a new found home town. He has written for newspapers in Florida and South Carolina.

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