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The Daily Dow ALEXANDRIA, VA. (December 12) -- I made my first journey to FOOL Headquarters today in some fourteen months. It's a bizarre industry, isn't it? I've worked with the Motley Fool, both as a volunteer and a regular writer now for about two-and-a-half years and I've only actually met the staff in person on one other occasion, several months after being hired. Where else but the digital world could such an unusual relationship take place?
But I really didn't mean to talk today about my wonderfully bizarre working relationship as much as point out some of the things it's taught me about investing, and on a nine-hour drive from Kentucky to Virginia, there's lots of time to reflect!
One of the things I've learned by getting so involved with the Motley Fool is that watching the actual market machinations on a daily basis isn't all that crucial. I've found as I work on articles or projects that aren't tied to a particular day's breaking news stories, it's almost a comfort not to have to watch the ticker each day. In fact, on days like today, when it's physically impossible to keep in touch with my portfolio for the majority of the trading day, it's wonderfully freeing. I can check in at the end of the day, read the news, check my portfolio, and move on to other things besides agonizing over why, for example, DuPont dropped today (or the Dow in general, for that matter).
I don't mean to trivialize what goes on in any given day by any means, and there are many stock stories that are worth reading and thinking about on any particular day. I do mean to suggest, though, that it takes an emotional burden off of one's shoulders not to have to be obsessed with the market day-by-day.
I think most of us fear that if we don't watch the market all day every day we're somehow less than "real" investors. After all, the gooroos put in 20-hour days on this stuff (if you believe the ads you see on the tube). So anything less and we fear that we're just playing at investing instead of investing in earnest.
But despite the emotional baggage we all carry about not doing enough (or doing too much of the wrong thing), being long-term investors doesn't make us less serious or less thoughtful about our investments. What it does, though, is make room for other parts of a full life. And as fun and exhilarating as the actual stock-market "game" is, isn't that what the real Spirit of Foolishness is? Having a life? It works for me anyway. Fool on! Today's Dow Numbers Stock Change Bid ------------------- DD -1 7/8 90.75 CHV -1 5/8 61.25 MMM -2 7/8 80.25 EK - 1/4 80.13 IMN - 3/8 32.50
Day Month Year History
FOOL-4 -2.13% -1.39% 24.75% 24.75%
DJIA -1.54% -3.34% 23.19% 23.19%
S&P 500 -1.54% -3.82% 18.41% 18.41%
NASDAQ -0.82% 0.44% 23.40% 23.40%
Rec'd # Security In At Now Change
1/2/96 142 DuPont 69.88 90.75 29.87%
1/2/96 149 3M 63.76 80.25 25.86%
7/16/96 14 Imation 26.16 32.50 24.25%
1/2/96 148 E. Kodak 67.00 80.13 19.59%
1/2/96 380 Chevron 52.38 61.25 16.95%
Rec'd # Security In At Value Change
1/2/96 380 Chevron 19902.50 23275.00 $3372.50
1/2/96 142 DuPont 9922.25 12886.50 $2964.25
1/2/96 149 3M 9500.09 11957.25 $2457.16
1/2/96 148 E. Kodak 9916.00 11858.50 $1942.50
7/16/96 14 Imation 366.21 455.00 $88.79
CASH $1942.85
TOTAL $62375.10
Transmitted: 12/12/96
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