I froze and stared at the screen, the stock was starting to crash as I watched.
I was paralyzed, do I take the position off and take my loss, or will the market come back.
“Quick drops like that reverse. See, the stock is stabilizing”
A minute passes as the cursor hops up and down, the stock trading up a few cents, then down a few cents.
“I’ll feel stupid if I get out here and then it recovers”
The next leg down. It collapses another $1.
“I don’t want to know what that is doing to my account.”
My chest is tight and my stomach is churning. I’m holding my breath as if I can make it move up by watching it intently.
“I should have gotten out an hour ago. Noon is usually a quiet time. If I can last until then..”
“My mental stop was $10 ago. I should have sold yesterday when it wasn’t acting right.”
It moves down another $1. I can feel the blood leaving my face. I feel a little faint.
I thought of my kids. I was trying to safeguard their future and here I was watching it go down the drain.
I sell at the market to get out. It might move up or down, I don’t care.
I’m out, relieved, exhausted.
(This happened to me President’s Week 2000 with the NASDAQ when we were on a ski vacation in Quebec City. I have been vague about the details here to make it timeless.)
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