After I bought Ebay the funniest thing happened. There was snow and a big arctic blast up in the Northeast.
"Ah, a snowstorm in the Northeast. I see. ..... So what?"
Well, that's what I would have thought, too. But it relates, believe it or not. For almost my entire life I have heard that when gas goes up it is because OPEC raised the price of oil. And we'd all say, "Damn those sandy bastards!"
As it turns out, commodities traders can jack up the price of oil by getting their panties in a wad over a few snowflakes in New York City and going apeshit over oil futures. They start buying it up like a Crack Ho getting a fix, and the next thing you know we're all paying more for a gallon of gas.
"What, no OPEC?"
Nope, just a bunch of suits in New York trying to make a fast buck.
"OK, so what does this have to do with Ebay?"
Well, this past year because of OPEC jacking us on oil people have become much more sensitive to the price of it. Also, because the market is somewhat shaky and uncertain, with a weak U.S. Dollar, people are jumpy. Add to this the prediction of a wicked cold winter in the U.S. along with the war in Iraq and you get a market sensitivity to oil.
Ebay had solid earnings. It should have gone up. But the market prophets predicted that Ebay would make even more than it actually did, so they were mad when it didn't happen. They threw a fit and tossed shares away. But as other companies' earnings came out they were almost all profitable, too, Yahoo and Travelzoo included. The market had gone down because of Ebay. It started to go up again after I bought more Ebay at what I considered a good price. And then a cold blast of arctic Canadian air came down the pipe and Nashville got some snow.
"AUGH, it's a new ice age! Buy oil! Buy oil!"
So the price of oil shot up as traders dumped stocks, including Ebay and Yahoo, to move their money over into commodities. Hey, they have more money than I do. I'm sure they're getting rich doing all of this jumping around. But I can't do that. I just have to try to focus on a few things and make a dollar wherever I can.
Today everyone seems to be back at the stock market again, jacking up Ebay and Travelzoo in pre-market trading, and giving the impression that today is going to be a banner day. I say 'today', but in reality I just mean this morning. The real trading takes place in the afternoon, after the less emotional investors have had their coffee, read the Wall Street Journal or Investors Business Daily, watched some news reports, and actually thought a bit about what they want to do. Then they invest based on rare things such as logic and reason and a little speculation. That's why you'll notice the trading up until just after noon goes one way, and then from about 1 until market close shifts and does something else on most days.
Just a bit of trivia, in case someone ever makes a Wall Street Trivial Pursuit game.
Loonies on the Path - brief interlude - quit flashing me
What is the deal with people randomly tapping their brakes as they're driving along in steady traffic? I got behind a woman yesterday who would just randomly flash her brakelights, with nothing in front of her and nothing going on. It was like she had Parkinsons and her foot was just shaking from peddle to peddle.
And this morning, with the sun shining and the weather warming, people were more obnoxious and aggressive than the whole previous week. What's the deal?
Maybe people are mad at those crazy commodities traders who jacked us on the price of oil and made gas go up, so they're just taking out their frustrations in traffic? Sure, that must be it. Damn commodities traders!
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