A BID AND A PRAYER
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But it was not the kind of loss that could break me, or make me
turn off CNBC for good. The only loss that could do that would be
a total loss. Since I had already cashed out as much from my
trading accounts as I had started with, it's unclear what "total
loss" could mean at this point. But even if it only meant coming
out even, it would be more painful than had I never started. As
it was, I made back most of my loss on ORCL within two weeks, and
to date I've managed to make at least as much as a day trader as
I do at my day job. But put to a choice, I'd keep my day job.
It's bound to get bigger before it implodes, if it ever does,
this day-trading epidemic. It's just too alluring: days of
$10,000 gains on $20,000 portfolios; 1,000% run-ups in exactly
those stocks that the least-educated investors love best;
well-deserved corrections that are the exception rather than the
rule. The Internet is a story about overnight-millionaire CEOs
and money-losing websites. What's more attractive than the notion
that the average fool might partake of those millions? From the
comfort of their Netscape browser, no less! With action like
this, the word gets out quickly, and pretty soon we're all
feeling invincible in front of our Pentiums, believing we're only
a few trades away from owning our own personal island, like the
truck driver in the E*Trade ad.
Analysts have predicted that 18 million people will be trading
online by 2001, but you can almost imagine hitting that number in
a year's time. I fear there are more people like myself, willing
to break their backs in pursuit of mythical "free money," than
anyone dares imagine. It seems unfair, unsustainable and begging
for karmic retribution, this phenomena of so many, so
undeserving, being rewarded with so much. But fairness,
sustainability and karma aren't the wheels upon which the markets
turn. The most deserving won't necessarily be the ones left
standing, and the morons won't necessarily be taken to the
cleaners. If pointing and clicking one's way to easy fortune
isn't the modern incarnation of the American Dream, I don't know
what is. I'll be playing along until the end--I hope with fingers
crossed and accounts in cash--the day it all comes tumbling down.
In his free time, Joey Anuff is working on a book about day
trading for Random House
