The share market can teach you a lot about life. Yesterday, by mistake, I pressed the SELL instead of the BUY button, which cost me a couple of thousand dollars. This cost, more an opportunity cost than a real cost, increased by $14,200 today when the shares went up another $1.42.
And yet, it's pointless to look back, since yesterday's mistake could just as easily have been a blessing if the shares had dropped in price today. And so it is also in life, although we do keep looking back and either flagellate or congratulate ourselves in hindsight about something that at the time had been completely unknown to us and outside our control.
And then there's the other thing: when to say "ENOUGH!" Making money is a bit like stamp-collecting: unless you clearly define and put a limit on it, there is always another stamp you will be chasing. So instead of collecting all stamps, why not limit yourself to Australian stamps of the pre-decimal period, so that one day you can happily say, "ENOUGH!"
I reached the "ENOUGH!" stage when I read that overnight in New York BHP had gone up another 2.1% to US$79.65 which, when converted into Australian dollars, equals $112.34 or $56.17 a share (the American Depositary Shares (ADSs) equal two Australian shares). Right on cue, BHP was up $1.60 to $56.35 when we left just after 10 o'clock to have a lunch of fish'n'chips with two good friends at Innes' Boatshed in the Bay.
Of course, you never get away from the Bay before you've met several other people and spent several more hours talking and talking and then talking some more. The bad news is that a friend's wife just up the road has been hospitalised with cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy.
Being no stranger to cancer myself, we stopped at their house on the way back but no-one was home. It once again reminds me how quickly life can take a nasty turn, and of how little importance money is when the health is gone. It's just after 3 o'clock and the market is still open for an hour but I won't bother to check again. BHP was still up $1.42 to $56.17 when I last checked the chart. That's good "ENOUGH!" for me.
