So just in case you were hiding under a rock or in some place where Al Gore’s internet doesn’t reach, Facebook got hammered last week. The Silicon Valley giant’s market value took a massive beating and well, everyone — and I mean everyone — has been reporting on it non-stop. I get that this “market event” is significant and I get that millions of people lost billions of dollars, but I assure you that all is not lost.
Facebook and its leader Mr. Zuckerberg are going to survive. To be clear, I have no empirical evidence of this, just my gut – I am not a Facebook user – there might be a HEDGEAnswers page, but it isn’t something I pay attention to. That being said, what got me this past week was all the people who said they were buying Facebook stock because of the sell-off: The stock had gone down so much, that it had to go back up.
Well, I’m not so sure about that and I don’t believe this is any way to buy stocks.
Making investment decisions is not something you can do on the fly. It takes effort, it takes research and it takes knowledge. If one does the math and the equation proves out, well then, of course one should put on the trade. But to buy simply because of a dip with no additional research seems to me foolishness, plain and simple. I am sure when and if Facebook recovers, many of you will tell me how foolish I was not to buy – well, I am willing to risk it.
Thanks to all of you who wrote in about last week’s post regarding texting and fleece vests. I truly appreciate the comments. One reader literally had me laughing out loud. Again, thank you for the kind words.
As we head into the dog days of summer there are two things that are going to allow me to beat the heat – and mind you, I live in Florida – so it is, as my friends in the north remind me time and again, quite hot here in August (actually I love the heat, by the way). The first is that the Red Sox are playing great and the second is that Mr. Brady and the boys are getting things together to get back to work on the gridiron.
Across the country, school will be starting soon, and as most of you know, I live in a place where a horrific event took place in February. The only thing I can say to each and every one of you and to anyone else that will listen is that if you want to make a difference and you care about your community and the world community as a whole, you need to get involved. It is easy to point fingers, it is easy to complain and it is even easier to do nothing, but all of that leads to nothing. It is not about the Right, the Left or the Center, it is about getting involved and doing something to make the places we live, wherever across the globe they may be, safer, better and more vibrant. In short, stop bitching and start acting.
Things that drive me crazy
Recently I went to see the Miami Marlins play the Washington Nationals at Marlins park in Miami. I was really excited to see Bryce Harper hit. He struck out three times, had a hit and was walked. Not a great outing but fun to see in person. One thing that was not fun, however, was the price of beer at the stadium – a small beer was $10.50 and fried fish sandwich was $14.50. Yes, you read that right — $10.50 for a beer and $14.50 for a sandwich. Attendance at Marlins’ games is horrible, even though the team is playing pretty well. I think a big part of the reason is that it is just too expensive. It doesn’t matter if you can afford the price of food or drink – who wants to pay it? If the Captain ever asks me how he can boost attendance,I’ll tell him it’s easy: Bring down the prices of the concessions.
