Ellen Douglas Williamson. Self-investment

Ellen Douglas Williamson. Self-investment

Born in pieces. Iowa, Ellen Williamson, wrote a well received book, "Put on Wall Street - an unconventional guide to profitable investment" (Wall Street Made Easy - An Unconventional Guide to Profitable Investing). Although she admitted that was neither well-known tycoon, or a professor at Harvard, not the former president of the New York Stock Exchange (all of which are obvious prerequisites for the authors of books on investing), she felt that she hadtwo things in its favor: (1 ), she speculated in 1927 and retained the ability to pay, (2) she hated the dry, jargon-filled books about the contemporary market. Strictly speaking, the reason that prompted her to write the book, she said, was to give the reader a practical guide, not spoiled by a mysterious language and the excessive abundance of charts and graphs.

Williamson, who graduated from Vassar College (Vassar College) a 1927, was certainly a bold and sincere, grab at least her idea of ??mutual funds: "Mutual funds are ideal for people who do not smyslyaschih in finance, or are not able to make decisions or frankly lazy. " Her book about investing, released 19b5 year, based on experience, she was trained in school to work with bonds "Gerenti Trust Company" (Guaranty Trust Company) and for 2b years was director of a pharmaceutical company, "Perkins Heyzeltayn End" (Hazeltine & Perkins). One of her strategies for stock selection - pick up ideas from the four or five more experienced friends.

But most importantly, Williamson believed that you must believe in ourselves, and she snubbed by Wall Street firms, especially when leadership was needed. Whether it was banking or investment institutions, she did not believe that they acted as a "stabilizing force" in the face of crisis or panic. "And why? Because these institutions are managed by individuals, are nervous as all normal people ..." She also believed that individuals can do very little to control their own future. No matter how much attention you give to the various market indices, warned Williamson, "at the very end, do not forget that there is absolutely no way to predict what will happen in the future are also difficult to find a substitute for sound judgment ..." Like other successful investors, she realized that a critical temperament, and in his essay "Self-investment," she explains why you can not be pies, Dandelion or impatient Griselda.



So, you do not like bankers and brokers, and bullish-bearish advisers, and that you manipulated any investment adviser who behave as if it is their money? Would you prefer to make their own mistakes? Frankly, I do too.

This is the same as if you paint the living room into a bright lemon-yellow and all the guests begin to behave as if caught hepatitis, it is better that it is your own whimsical decision, than to be forced to look at it every day and gradually go mad with rage at this artist's interior rattle. If this is your fault, it's an interesting experiment, and if it did decorator, you risk to get off the coils of pure rage.

Now, suppose you are buying 100 shares of cleaning windows "Little Daisy" 20 apiece, and they quickly fall to 10, and you no one to blame but yourself, you at least can write it off to gain experience or bad timing or a disease. But if someone else persuaded you to buy them - well! Becomes almost impossible to survive the rage - how could this so-and-so choose a stinking campaign - whether he is an alchemist, he could not make it fall faster, it should be, on the advice of the board, "Vigil," his grandmother, that's what he does.

So, you decide to invest on their own. But first, let's see if you come to this? In terms of temperament? Some people, you know, can not cope with it.


MODEL Pyshki
For example, a few years ago I helped my girlfriend to investing - a young model. When she lived in ARose, her name was Richardson Boule de Suif, but arrived in New York, she turned into Flick Stark.

Her hands appeared frequently in television commercials, elegantly slim leg shaving electric razor or a quaint little spilling ink on the pad, which is then processed by some miracle drug.

Sometimes the commercials were filmed only her legs, and they were also popular and highly paid. When she appeared as a whole, harmonious and laughing, occasionally smoking a cigarette on the way to a picnic or enthusiastically spraying hairspray on her bright tresses, she received the 3000 - 4000 dollars in advertising issue, then half that amount for the second half of the show and half of third (royalty is calculated on each re-execution), etc. etc. Baby made money and was smart enough to realize that her good luck and legs are not eternal, and intelligent enough to invest much of the money as soon as checks have appeared in her mailbox.

Crumpet knew about the shares no more than "Flopsy, Banniz," but, at my suggestion, dutifully bought 100 shares of each of the following companies:

Standard Oil of New Jersey
Sears, Roebuck & Company
Central and Southwest Corporation
New York Chicago & St. Louis Railroad
Thompson Karo Wooldridge

By the time all of them within six months, were bought and locked away in her safe deposit box, she became an inveterate reader of the second section, "The New York Times", which publishes stock quotes. As soon as it grew possession, she got into the habit of calling me the most incredible hours.

"Honey - she cooed at his best polubritanskom emphasis - that the deal with" Jessie Standard? "It behaves oddly uzhasssno, today plunged on yesterday polpunkta and three quarters. It's really strange ochchchen - what's the matter?"

One evening she took me to the "Oak Hall" hotel "Plaza". I was sure that the plane crashed or my husband's daughter was kicked out of college, and felt a huge relief, and soon the extreme irritation to learn that it was only vsesch Boule de Suif.

"Do you think that my" Nickel Plate "uo really reliable? - Her voice is vaguely reached me through the clatter of plates .- I have just been at a cocktail party and met a man who says that the railways ochchchen dangerous investment - honestly , honey, I just terribly worried. "

And later in the week, "Honey, I'm calling from the" Stork ". 'Ih see what happens with" Siars? "It's too awful!"

And so it continued periodically until a heart attack President Eisenhower. On that day, the Dow fell 31.89 points from 487.45 to 455.56. Crumpet phoned from Hollywood. She was in hysterics.

"I am devastated - she sobbed. - All is lost. I can not stand it,"

I tried to calm her down, but nothing happened. She was beside herself,

"It's your fault - she interrupted. - I again impoverished, and all because of you."

Two months later, when the stock market recovered from the panic and the Dow went back to 485.26, pies, then I want to say, Flick, flew to the West Coast, smiling and laughing. She brought me an expensive beach bag, embroidered with pearls and violet flowers, champagne and insisted in a small dark bar with a heavily air-conditioned air.

It took an hour and a lot of champagne, but in the end I made her, I persuaded her to sell all their shares and put the money in plain old stable government bonds.

Today it is emotionally stable and balanced, has a lot of money in government bonds and high style for the sake of keeping the two temperamental poodle and a refined car, "Alfa Romeo". I do not see that it proclaimed the benefits of the new detergent on television, but she has a good model, stable job in the salon apparel "Butterfly phlox" or something like that, and often when I open the account from the "Blumingdeylz '" her smiling face and trim figure caught my eye when I'm throwing a small pamphlet with ads from a fast drying fabric dresses in the wastebasket.

MISS GOD Dandelion

In more recent years I have long helped with the securities of one of my distant cousin, predalekoy, and it also proved to be the type who should stick to the most boring and uninteresting bonds.

This lady had just returned after a divorce in Nevada, she was forty-something, and she went crazy for the boys, She had a dazzling black hair (dyed), milky-white skin (thanks to the cosmetic layer) and a tendency to wear sumptuous chiffon dresses and sharp-toed shoes are high heels. Lyagni it someone that would be worse than to get on the horns of the bull. After the divorce, she received a huge amount of alimony to help her, and asked them to invest properly.

Very flattered, I really got down to business. I asked my advice from investment advisers and asked a few other astute people in the world of finance.

I spent many hours thinking about which stocks to buy in areas that seemed best for her, how much to send its shares in one or another branch, and so on.

She graciously thanked me for the neatly printed investment program, asked a few incidental questions, write down the name of my broker, and departed. As it turned out, she did not buy anything from the fact that I recommended

For example, I offered to buy shares of two oil companies, "Royal datch" and "Kerr-McGee," The broker was alarmed when she told him that I advised her to buy "Zapata Offshore" and "Ambassador Oil." He thought I was crazy, and I called to tell me about it. I called Miss Dandelion God (we shall not name her real name), and learned that walking away from me, she went by taxi directly to your astrologer. It turned out that the "Royal Oil datch" stars are not very successful, but "Kerr McGee" was not suitable for her under any circumstances - for reasons which had some relation to the scales.

Further, she did not buy "Litton Industries," because she did not like the name "Lytton", and she could not buy shares, "Eli Lilly" as the lily is associated with funerals, and hence the failure. I hung up, and since then every time I think about it, I feel irritated.

This irritation that she now lives in Genoa in a beautiful restored castello or ralazzo overlooking the blue Mediterranean Sea, and they say that it has more bathrooms than any other villa south of Rome.

Perhaps this astrology, in the end, that's just it.


Looking Griselda
There is one quality required for self-investment - patience. In 1932, when the depression was at its lowest point, my friend, then a young man, came to New York, found a good job in radiobiznese and started to make money. He felt confident that the stock is undervalued (for the year is very low-key statement), as, indeed, and his broker. But he never made money on this, because I was too busy buying and selling, buying and selling.

There is another type, which must remain on the sidelines of the investment world, and this person Resolved sentiments.

Oh, I just can not part with my "Florida Power dihaydreyted" - she will speak with pleading eyes, - my great-grandfather They belonged to Atkins. I do not know how I'll live without them, because they have been in our family for so long. "

Sell ??my "Macbeth spot remuver Common?" Never! - Yelled another. - All these years I've seen from them so much good, and now, even though they do not bring any profit, I'll be kind to them. "

Or: "I would not want to sell you" General pushing Shouing End "- you know, Ellsworth gave them to me on my fortieth birthday. I'll never forget what a wonderful day it was ..."

The moral actions and emotions are incompatible.