After seeing today’s huge gains follow last week’s horrific losses, we are reminded of a little poem called “Evolution” by Father John Banister Tabb.
By Amit D.
What on Earth to buy today? Oils, foods, drugs, you say. I ask you please to go away. The trading lately has made me mad. My P&L looks so bad. Indeed it has left me sad. The S+P is up you know. Where to next is a hard blow. For up or down it can move slow. But then it can break your back. While you’re sleeping, Asians attack. Not with missiles or with nukes, with their markets showing slack. Often I feel in a bind. This whole mess has broke my mind. My next position to unwind. Oh, serenity, may you I find.
Amit is an options trader in California.
By Armadillo
The market leaves me feeling hazy.
The fluctuations make me crazy.
My stocks move at their own beat.
Unpredictable! Even by the street.
Another day my holdings gunned.
I think I’ll buy an index fund.
By Eric Rosen
My mornings quiver like a nervous wind
Will my riches by the market skinned?
I check the quotes and sip the brew
Aside from worry, what else to do?
An addiction I have for the screen
Green I’m cordial, red I’m mean
I wash, brush, see the latrine
Then watch the market, that’s my routine
A waste, I know. I cannot sway!
So this is how I start my day
Eric lives in Philadelphia.
By Raymond L. Walter
Your movements fill me with joy, indeed merely hearing your name
You are at times random
But fair always; loyal to no one more than the other
With great emotion and force you gyrate
Providing opportunity to the patient and shrewd
Knowing full well emotions’ impact on our interaction
I stay the course
And hold tight
This poem was written in response to yesterday’s anonymous submission, Market Anger.
By Anonymous
Your movements fill me with anger, indeed merely hearing your name
You are a thief, a traitor, a disloyal one
With no sense of civility you gyrate
Knowing full well emotions’ impact on our interaction
I change course
And go short
The author is an investor with 7 years experience.
By Eliot
Tightly you have held my hand
Always returning upon demand
Comfort and assurance ran through the vein
And my forgiveness easy, without bane
Sometimes a stroll, oft a trot
Doubt you had granted not
A test of wills with bar set low
Until this just most recent blow
You have wandered, but have you left?
I know your walkings are with deft
My face is saddened, my pocket ripped
As now my gains are sprightly clipped
Yet today sorrow has found the door
The Dow’s up 198 and more
My heart adrift in an endless bay
I ask but this: will the rally stay?
After weeks of market declines, the Dow closed up 198.27 points today.
By Market Poetry
Must you take every last ounce?
Come on, ol’ market, how ‘bout a bounce?
If earnings were falling or cashflow was down
We’d understand why we’d need to frown
But do we really need to see that much red
Just due to offhand comments from the Fed?
Gold was too hot, emerging markets too
But not the S&P! For years it’s been blue!
So enough with this damage, it’s time to reverse
Or if you can’t go up, at least stop getting worse!