I have this new addiction.
Clue: It wakes me up at 9 am, gets me clicking refresh every 30 seconds, makes me sad when it’s Friday, and super excited for Monday.
Last December, I saw a giant mall chain company constructing yet another mall along a busy highway. It got me thinking, I should totally invest on this company. So for the next two weeks, I studied the stock market and stuff until last January, I finally started buying stocks. Now I have stocks with four different companies, none of which is the company that inspired me to get involved with the stock market to begin with (because they are currently “overbought”).
Anyway, that’s boring stuff. The only reason I’m writing about it now, though, is because lately, P and I have been having discussions about our dating/non-dating thing and he has been using “stocks” as his metaphor-weapon to convince me that we should still date even though he’s dating others.
His argument, which he admits is simplistic (and I agree), is that dating multiply is like investing in many stocks: you somehow lessen the risk of losing everything by partitioning your investments.
While simplistic, he does have a point. If I go all the way back to my dating history from high school, to college, to med school, I can think of at least one boy that corresponds with each of the stocks that I’m currently invested on or interested in.
One: my bank stock. It's a pretty solid stock, stock prices are going up in a steady manner, and it's giving me gains big enough to offset all my losses with the other ones. It's like D in college. whose feelings for me were so reliable and gave me a sense of security so I could have my heart broken by other boys and know that there's always him to take care of me after, hahahaha. But unlike my bank stock which I can hold forever, D got tired of his placeholder status and finally moved on. So unlike stocks, people can wake up and decide to leave you.
Two: my infrastructure company stock. I consider this stock my soul mate, for reasons that are too boring to discuss. But right now its prices are going down and I’m at a loss, but I just know that if I hold on to it long enough, it will eventually turn around and give me unimaginable gains. ♥ Or even if it doesn’t give me any gains, I’m just happy to be part of it and will continue to support it, no matter what. ♥ I guess it’s like my high school best friend PV. I really believed (at 14 years old, hahaha) that he was my soul mate. That even if he dated other girls, even if I was always just the best friend, we were meant to be together in the end. Of course, I don’t believe that anymore now. I think.
Three: a conglomerate stock, which I only invested on based on hype --- well, also the intrinsic qualities of the company --- but mostly hype. Just an “Ideal Guy” that every other girl likes, I guess. But the problem with investing on an ideal person versus an ideal stock, is that persons are in the end monogamous (or at least persons that are available to me). There can be only one holder. Unlike stocks. Stocks are not monogamous, they're not petty, and they don't get jealous of each other. You don't have to choose just one stock, because the stocks don't belong to just one person. If you drop a stock, it doesn't necessarily suffer because again, it doesn't have feelings, and there are plenty of stockholders in the sea.
And last: my energy company stock. It has always been a "good stock" but it only caught my eye when its price took a very sudden and extreme dip, so I'm taking advantage of its vulnerable
phase so that I'll have a good position once its prices go back up to its actual value once more. ;) I guess we all have that “taken” guy we keep an eye out for, just in case Facebook announces that he’s now single. ;)
But even though I indulged in his stock market = dating analogy, I still hold that it’s faulty for one important reason: Stocks don’t have feelings. And I’ve played with enough feelings and had my feelings trampled on in the process to know that I am now officially too old for that game.
Besides, if P must push the stock market = dating analogy, I have Warren Buffet, the greatest investor ever, and currently my nerd-crush, on my side. He once said: "Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing."
Last December, I saw a giant mall chain company constructing yet another mall along a busy highway. It got me thinking, I should totally invest on this company. So for the next two weeks, I studied the stock market and stuff until last January, I finally started buying stocks. Now I have stocks with four different companies, none of which is the company that inspired me to get involved with the stock market to begin with (because they are currently “overbought”).
Anyway, that’s boring stuff. The only reason I’m writing about it now, though, is because lately, P and I have been having discussions about our dating/non-dating thing and he has been using “stocks” as his metaphor-weapon to convince me that we should still date even though he’s dating others.
His argument, which he admits is simplistic (and I agree), is that dating multiply is like investing in many stocks: you somehow lessen the risk of losing everything by partitioning your investments.
While simplistic, he does have a point. If I go all the way back to my dating history from high school, to college, to med school, I can think of at least one boy that corresponds with each of the stocks that I’m currently invested on or interested in.
One: my bank stock. It's a pretty solid stock, stock prices are going up in a steady manner, and it's giving me gains big enough to offset all my losses with the other ones. It's like D in college. whose feelings for me were so reliable and gave me a sense of security so I could have my heart broken by other boys and know that there's always him to take care of me after, hahahaha. But unlike my bank stock which I can hold forever, D got tired of his placeholder status and finally moved on. So unlike stocks, people can wake up and decide to leave you.
Two: my infrastructure company stock. I consider this stock my soul mate, for reasons that are too boring to discuss. But right now its prices are going down and I’m at a loss, but I just know that if I hold on to it long enough, it will eventually turn around and give me unimaginable gains. ♥ Or even if it doesn’t give me any gains, I’m just happy to be part of it and will continue to support it, no matter what. ♥ I guess it’s like my high school best friend PV. I really believed (at 14 years old, hahaha) that he was my soul mate. That even if he dated other girls, even if I was always just the best friend, we were meant to be together in the end. Of course, I don’t believe that anymore now. I think.
Three: a conglomerate stock, which I only invested on based on hype --- well, also the intrinsic qualities of the company --- but mostly hype. Just an “Ideal Guy” that every other girl likes, I guess. But the problem with investing on an ideal person versus an ideal stock, is that persons are in the end monogamous (or at least persons that are available to me). There can be only one holder. Unlike stocks. Stocks are not monogamous, they're not petty, and they don't get jealous of each other. You don't have to choose just one stock, because the stocks don't belong to just one person. If you drop a stock, it doesn't necessarily suffer because again, it doesn't have feelings, and there are plenty of stockholders in the sea.
And last: my energy company stock. It has always been a "good stock" but it only caught my eye when its price took a very sudden and extreme dip, so I'm taking advantage of its vulnerable
phase so that I'll have a good position once its prices go back up to its actual value once more. ;) I guess we all have that “taken” guy we keep an eye out for, just in case Facebook announces that he’s now single. ;)
But even though I indulged in his stock market = dating analogy, I still hold that it’s faulty for one important reason: Stocks don’t have feelings. And I’ve played with enough feelings and had my feelings trampled on in the process to know that I am now officially too old for that game.
Besides, if P must push the stock market = dating analogy, I have Warren Buffet, the greatest investor ever, and currently my nerd-crush, on my side. He once said: "Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing."