Take a tip...A story.6 May 2018 07:37
Not silly hydrogen... but when everyman and his dog sees this going only one way?.....well you know the story about Jack Kennedy getting stock tips from the shoe-shine boy outside J.P.Morgan he knew it was time to quit the market. The date Oct 25 1929 three days before 'Bloody Monday' when the stampede to unload started, Kennedy was out of stocks. The arrest of Hatry in London on embezzlement and other charges started a mini panic in N.Y. Livermore the arch 'shorter' saw what was coming. In six days of trading the Dow fell 33%. More than $25bn in individual wealth was lost. Some people would never recover, their savings scattered among the fifteen thousand miles of ticker tape recording all those deals. Many sales were never done, records were incomplete, some margin accounts had been sold out twice and baskets full of orders were stuck in a corners for safekeeping only to be forgotten. Desperate investors had only one thought."Sell at the market." "Get me out." The devastation of the 28/9th left a huge mess. One wag was heard to say "this gave me diabetes at 42." "Thats nothing," the other replied. "I got Radio at 93." After the market had closed, representatives of the largest banking & brokerage houses issued a joint statement saying the market was 'fundamentally sound' and technically in better condition than it had been in months. The statement ended with four unforgettable words: the worst has passed.Thus did the great Depression start. The Dow eventually bottoming at 42 a plunge of 90% from the Sept '29 high. The market once valued at c.$90bn was now worth less than $15bn by 1932. It took c.25 years for the Dow to reach the peak it hit in 1929. And Livermore? He survived the crash but in '31 he plunged heavily and lost in a series of gambles and in two years lost an est $30m. Wiped out and unable to settle his debts he went to the men's room in the Sherry - Netherlands Hotel and shot himself in the head. He left a note in capitals saying: My life has been a failure...my life has been a failure over and over. Jack Kennedy survived the crash with his wealth intact and plunged into the market picking up Depression forced bargains. He made an est $15m which went into depressed property eventually worth $100m. Bad times were finally turning to good...the doomsayers calling for the Exchange to be done away with were ultimately proved spectacularly wrong. Good morning all...
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