Today day trading is like gambling on website like jackpot casino. In days past, before a person invested in stocks in a company, a person would do extensive research on the history of the company, the people who were running the company, news about a company, and finally what was going on around the world and how it would affect the company.
But all of that research seems to be gone. Day traders (as with many reporters) read forums and just go with the flow of what the mood of the people are. Sometimes they even try to affect the mood by causing panic through their own words or their own actions.
A short history of the coronavirus
- January and February – Iraq, a worldwide pilgrimage to Qom, the outbreak of the Coronavirus in Iraq.
- Jan 22 – One person from China to the US, Seattle Washington
- Jan 24 – full briefing for the whole Senate about Coronavirus. It was sparsely attended because all of the senators were focused on the impeachment trial and impeachment questions that had to be submitted. Democrats thought the Republicans were using the Coronavirus to distract from the impeachment.
- Jan 26 – Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (Democrat) called on the Department of Health and Human Services to declare coronavirus a public health emergency, which would free up $85 million in funding for federal agencies. “Should the outbreak get worse they’re going to need immediate access to critical federal funds that at present they can’t access,”
- Jan 31 – Trump banned travel from China. Democrats thought it was an overreaction. First Coronovirus case in Italy
- Feb 3 – Articles appeared in Arab newspapers accusing the US of doing an attack on Arab nations.
- Feb 4 – Cancellation of Diamond Princess Cruise
- Feb 15 – Diamond Princess cruise repatriated
- Feb 19 – Iran 2 people infected (died). Diamond cruise quarantine ends.
- Feb 20 – Iran 5 people infected
- Feb 21 – Iran 28 people infected. 16 cases in Italy.
- Feb 22 – Iran 43 people infected – Iraq closed its borders with Iran. Iraq was taking what was going on in Iran seriously, so the numbers must have been much higher than what was officially being reported.
- Feb 24 – Pelosi is encouraging people to come to Chinatown in San Francisco for a huge outdoor celebration.
- Feb 25 – Mardi Gras in St. Louis.
- Feb 26 – 344 cases in Italy. The first case of Coronavirus in the US in the general population. The person was not tested, because they did not fit specified criteria.
- Feb 27 – Whistleblower complains HHS workers were not given proper training or protective gear. The whistleblower was reassigned after filing a complaint.
- March 2 – People should go about their normal lives. Nothing to worry about. Deblasio, NYC.
- March 15 – The US government recommended that citizens do not hold events larger than 50 people.
- March 18 – Florida spring break disaster
Pelosi and other Democratic leaders telling US citizens “we did not know”
How can the Democrats claim that they “did not know”? Theoretically, we are supposed to be electing the best and the brightest to be our leaders. Okay, I am living in a dream world with that statement. But how can our leaders claim that they did not know? They were given a meeting about the virus. But when given a choice between educating themselves about the government concerns with the coronavirus and impeaching trump, they chose to continue with impeaching Trump.
Plus, it does not take a rocket scientist to put 1 and 2 together and get 3.
Look at Iran. They have a pilgrimage where people came from all over the middle east to visit the holy site of Qom, Iran, and then the virus two weeks later spreads to the whole middle east (except Israel, which is mostly Jewish). Anybody who was paying any attention at the time knew that large community events were feeding grounds for this virus. It only takes 1 person who was sick to quickly become 14 the next day, 95 the third day, and then all hell breaks loose.
Even if, on February 24, we were not ready as a country to close our borders, close our businesses, and have everybody stay home, there was enough evidence at the time to realize that holding massive community events where people come from all over the world is a disaster waiting to happen. That is what Mardi Gras was. That was what the Chinese New Year Celebrations in San Francisco was.
On February 25, 2020, I wrote an article about what was going on in Italy and Iran. All of the articles that I read stated that the reason why the coronavirus spread so quickly in Iran was due to their yearly Pilgrimage to Qom. How is it that on February 25, 2020, I knew that holding Madri Gras, parades or other large community events that attract people from all over the US and potentially all over the world was a really bad idea. Granted in Iran they lick their holy sites, which definitely contributed to the spread of the coronavirus … on the other hand … I am going to take the wild assumption that at Mardi Gas a lot of other licking and sharing of bodily fluids was going on, but that is another story.
What other lessons did Iran teach us? When they let the kids out of school with nothing to do, everybody went to the Caspian Sea (vacation). Closing colleges and schools without providing the students with something to do was a disaster waiting to happen. But again, the evidence was all there. I saw it. I wrote about it. But our elected officials (and leaders of educational institutions of higher learning) did not see it or did not want to see it.
Anyway, either I am a genius genius that is more intelligent than 95% of our elected officials (and leaders of our educational institutions) or else our elected officials (and leaders of our educational institutions) are lying through their teeth about “not knowing” or “not understanding” or “if Trump told us”.
These are supposed to be educated adults. Some of them are even in charge of top notch collegs and universities, but they are acting as if they do not understand that that 1 plus 1 equals 2 without the help of somebody showing them with 1st grade counting blocks.
The American people pay the people in congress (and in colleges and universities) huge salaries. We expect that at least some of the time, our leaders (and educators) to use their brains for more than their own political gain. As for congress, they were given a meeting in January. They ignored the meeting because the impeachment trial was too important.
And the American people are now paying for that mistake.
As for the educators, when I was in college, one of the requirements in order to graduate was a course where we had to read the newspaper every single day for the whole term. It is kind of strange to think that this is a skill students have to learn in college … but, judging by the fact that even after the President declared that there should be no groups larger than 50 people, instead of listening the warnings of our government, the students decided to go to Florida to Spring break and then transfer the coronavirus to the rest of the country.
Yea … the education of college students … hence the graduation requirement of some colleges that students actually learn how to read a newspaper.
How does this relate to day traders?
In the days of old, people who invested in stocks did research. They researched companies, they researched the leaders of the companies, they researched what was going on in the government, and they researched what was going on in local events and world events.
Not to sound too glum, but the drop in the stock market (if this was the pre-1990s) would have happened between Feb 24 – Feb 28, not on March 2 – 6. It may have even happened as early as Feb 4.
So, why would the crashing of the stock market a month earlier have been a good thing for the country?
It would have caught people’s attention. Then the leaders would have been forced to pay attention. And maybe the country would have started to prepare for the disaster earlier or even taken better precautions for the healthcare workers who were caring for the people being repatriated and one thing would not have lead to another.
Summary
We can’t change the past. We can only use the past to help prepare for the future.
The stock market can no longer be treated the same as a casino site. Investors need to go back to the days of old. They need to research companies. They need to research the leaders of those companies. They need to research what is going on in government. And they need to pay attention to what is going on in both local events and worldwide events that can affect a specific company or a whole industry.
Those that are able to get off the blog forums and start doing their own research and their own independent thinking are the ones who are going to be turning lemons into lemonade.
My prediction … everybody is itching to get back to work and to get out their isolation … even the self declared introverts. As with other times, companies will close and companies will open and life will go on. But most of all, Americans are pissed. There is no way in hell the Ameircan people are going to let the coronavirus win this war. And, yes it is a war. It is literally a fight to the death war and the American people are determined to win. We are so determined to win that eventually we are going to follow the old adage “the enemy of your enemy is your friend”.
In today’s terms it means that when our Democrat leaders and Republican leaders stop infighting wth each and start working together, it will be a force that cannot be reckoned with, it will be an energy that most of us, from the younger generation (younger than 50), have not seen since the end of World Word II. It will be a second birth of the American economy and industry. And it will definitely be something worth investing in.