An old blue-collar Cleveland boy probably has no business owning stock. It isn't like work. No Whitman song in it, no sweat and blood, no hot steel or wicked steam, nothing to endure but anxiety.

Click to enlarge

Story tools

Comments (0)

E-mail a friend

Print

Share on Facebook

Digg this

Seed Newsvine

Send link via AIM

Follow on Twitter

Font size : A | A | A

"It's a game," a cousin once told me with a swagger in his voice as he described his online trading. "It's a game."

Yeah, like fantasy football.

And it's addictive, commanding way too much attention. Like fantasy football.

The last time I was in a fantasy football league was almost 15 years ago. I read the football agate not as a fan but as a gambler. Six carries for 43 yards at a point per 10 yards meant 4 points. Hmmm ... who else have I got at running back?

Now, it's let's see ... if the stock price goes up to four bucks a share and I sell 300 shares that I bought at 50 cents a share ... Shoot fire, son, get your Warren Buffett on! Hey cousin, I got your game!

"Are you becoming a day trader?" my wife asked. It's a question I couldn't have imagined a few years ago. But I have done short-term profit-taking with the few shares I've bought. Bless me father, for I have traded.

Alaska State Sen. Con Bunde once remarked that some people work for their money and some people worry for their money.

Worrying for money gets in the way of working for it. I check the stock price every day at work. On company time. But then it's company stock. Often I check several times a day. I scan blogs and what analysts are saying. I track the value of my modest 401(k) every day. I never did that before. I used to let my 401(k) fend for itself unless I was borrowing against it. Retirement? Too far away to fathom.

It still is.

Money is such a distraction. I need to get back to work.

-- Frank Gerjevic

ADVERTISEMENT