"Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny." -- unknown

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results - Albert Einstein

Money and Work
October 10, 2008 - 9:21 am

A counter-intuitive view to a degree, but I'm not saying I'd buy today.. I'm saying I wish I had the money so I could buy soon.

A lady at work came up to me.. her look harried. She and I have talked 401ks and whatnot before. She said, "I put all my money into the fixed fund. Everything." I nodded, but didn't really say anything.. I'd did the same a couple of days before.

She continues.. "Our stock is down so much, I know someone is going to buy us."

I frown, "Everyone's stock is down. The problem isn't with us, it's the market."

She shakes her head, "No, it's never been this low. We are ripe for a merger now."

I continue to frown, "Perhaps. There's always talks of mergers... but no one has the money now. That's why stocks are down. Credit markets are frozen."

We talk a bit more and she waddles off wallowing in her pool of fear.

To a point, she's right.. our price is very low compared to the history.. and I know her real driver is that she's been with the company for many, many years. This downturn has proper fucked all the stock she owns and her 401k funds. No more or worse than anyone else.. but it's quite personal to her.

401ks continue to shift money to cash/fixed funds.. pulling out of the market.. this drives the price lower.

Hedge fund investors continue to pull money out.. this drives stocks lower.

No one sees a clear solution to the credit problem.. and so no one is buying. Everyone is selling. Prices fall.

The... underlying strength of companies, of key companies, hasn't changed. Johnson n Johnson is no worse of a company today than it was yesterday... but the price has fallen from the 70's to the 50's -- no where near as much as some companies have fallen. JNJ makes things people want or need at all times -- good economy or bad. You could call it one of the bluest of the blue chips.

This is a company I'd watch and be ready to buy... entering in at much better price than I could have in the recent past. Without doing any research, I have little fear of JNJ's basic value.

Many other companies like this are out there... all getting battered in the market due to factors that really have nothing to do with them...

It's said a rising tide lifts all ships... and the reverse is true here.

Since I lack.. real money to invest directly in stocks... I can't buy stocks in my 401k, I'm left to ponder and look for more.. speculative plays. Wanting the larger % increase when things turn around. Perhaps my view is wrong and I should go for quality regardless. Perhaps.. but the appeal of speculation just feels better.

The irony that speculation is probably the best one word summary of why we are where we are has not escaped me.

At work... I'm winding down in my old job. Going out with a bang in a way. A huge case continues to linger with new hot items popping up left and right. My role is to coordinate our replies to various questions. At this point, mostly due to the size of the case, that means getting senior leadership to answer this.. that and the other.

I get to hound them. I get to pester them. I get to prod them.

I sort of like it. They know my role.. and I try to be respectful, but the bottom line is that at a given time our info is due back and I'll be damned if we are going to be late. That's really my job. Everyone else has a million other things on their plate. In many, many ways.. this is (was) the ONLY thing on my plate.

It's my get out of doing anything I don't want to do card... All I have to say is, "Can't, I'm working on X today." and everyone nods, "Sure get to this when you can" or "Ok, I'll go to someone else."

Did we deliver on time? We did. Though.. as always, it comes down to the wire. There's always ONE item that festers. I am convinced that no matter how much time we are given to answer things.. we will automatically take ALL the time given.

One item.. All I needed was a list of common data elements seen by to systems. That's it. I got list A quickly.. so all the list B folks had to do was look down A's list and delete anything A can't see.

Days pass... what do I get back? A comprehensive list of everything B sees.

Fucking worthless.

I call the lead up. We talk. He reiterates a couple times, "But don't you think they want to know all this other stuff?" I say, "Read my the question."

The questions says what are the COMMMON data elements A and B both see.

Piss on EVERYTHING they see... though if I had gotten the info in a proper time frame, I could have made a pretty chart with check boxes so we could share it all... but no. I get not a list but wandering explanations of this and that.. and key (simple) elements left out.

I ask the lead, "According to your doc, you don't list, so you can't see, basic demographic information.. is that right?"

"No, of course we can see that."

"It's not on your list. Pull up the doc with A's list and let's walk through it..."

"Ok... but they leave off lots of stuff we can see and do."

I want to cuss. I want to pound my phone to the desk. I want to find this person and kick him in the crotch.

"The question says common. If you had gotten me this list a couple days ago, I'd be happy to share it all and create a nice grid. You're getting back me literally 20 minutes before the deadline. We don't have time to haggle over this. We are going to walk down A's list and you say yes or no. That's it."

We go through the list... was the answer really good? No.. but what can I do? Whoever on this lead's team made their list.. took days to create something worthless. Utterly worthless.

Why is it so very hard to answer the question asked? You do that and then say... additional information on unique views systems have is available upon request.