flinn@seismo.UUCP (E. A. Flinn) (04/03/84)
I was lucky enough to learn a valuable lesson about investments a long time ago. Colleagues at my first job had a commodity trading group in which each person put in $500, and they met every day at lunch to discuss their trades. I wasn't involved, since it seemed pretty speculative and I didn't have $500 I was willing to part with. One spring day a friend in the group said to me that it was time for me to join up, since they had a cinch: November Maine potatoes. He gave me ten solid, sensible, and plausible reasons why November Maine potatoes were bound to go up - bad weather, disease, increasing demand, and so on. I declined, but that fall asked him how they had done in the November Maine potatoes. He sheepishly gave me ten equally solid reasons why the potatoes had gone down instead of up. Now whenever I have a chance at a hot tip, I just say to myself, "November Maine potatoes..." It's saved me a good many thousands of dollars over the years.