ericf@grkermit.UUCP (Eric A. Freeman) (07/27/84)
This is copied from the Wall Street Journal 7/26/84 --------------------------------------------------- THE SMALL INVESTOR'S SOLILOQUY By Thomas E. Cavanagh To sell or not to sell: that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the wallet to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous down-days, Or to take a tax loss against a sea of troubles, And by liquidating, end them. To drop: to lose; No more; and by a sale to say we end The heartache and the thousand natural shocks The portfolio is heir to, 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To drop, to drop To drop; perchance to bottom: ay, there's the rub; For in that cash position what gains may come When we have shuffled out of this falling market, Must give us pause. There's the respect That makes contrarians after so steep a loss; For who would bear the whips and scorns of options trading, The analyst's wrong, the brokers commissions, The pangs of dispriz'd earnings estimates, the rally's delay The insolence of margin calls, and the profits That insider trading of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his interest make With a money market fund? Who would losses bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary technical structure, But that the dread of missing a new bull market, The undiscover'd 3000 on the Dow from whose peak No stocks return, puzzles the will, And makes us rather keep those dogs we have Than to fly to T-bills that we know not of? Thus confusion does make paupers of us all; And thus the native hue of speculation, Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of hedging, And investments of great pith and moment With regard thier timing turn awry, And lose the name of profit.