Thursday, May 07, 2020

Falling and Rising and Choosing

Like any punter, I brag about my wins. So permit me to chortle about the pick I made two weeks ago.

Winnebago (WGO-click chart to enlarge) has appreciated 31%, while the principal indexes have gone up 1-5%.

So I'm chortling away.

401(k): the amount lost is equal to years of salary.
Not very pleasurable is the status of the 401(k). Allocated to the stock of a former employer, there's a lot more invested in the 401(k) than in Winnebago and a lot more to lose.

Ever since the pandemic cratered the stock market it has been painful to look at brokerage statements.

On the bright side stock market analysts say that we have seen the bottom and the market is rallying because the country is re-opening for business.

I don't feel the confidence. The infection rate is down but we don't know why. For people who do become severely ill, there's no vaccine and no guaranteed treatment (remdesivir is only somewhat effective). The lockdown did "bend the curve" so hospitals weren't overwhelmed like Italy, but it seems to your humble blogger that we're re-opening and crossing our fingers that the second wave won't hit.

Everyone will have to judge for themselves whether and how much to go out and practice social distancing. Everyone will have to judge for themselves how important it is to work and how much health risk to accept.

Perhaps that's what America is all about----not locking down or opening for business but giving people all the information and letting them decide for themselves what's right for them.

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