The Wheel Of Fortune Essay, Research Paper
Robert Balgac
Journal Entry # 5
Mysticism
Dr. Collinge
The Wheel of Fortune
Harmonizing to Zen Buddhisim, the wheel of luck rotates and the 1s who are now hapless will be rich in the hereafter and frailty versa. The stock of America Online, symbol AOL, is a perfect illustration of this belief.
Earlier in the twelvemonth, AOL was the hottest stock on Wall Street. Every analyst loved it, stating things like & # 8216 ; if you want to play the Internet, purchase AOL because they are the best of the best & # 8217 ; . The stock doubled in the first four months of the twelvemonth. At one clip in April, the stock set unprecedented 18 back-to-back ( ! ) all clip highs. Everybody thought the stock was traveling to the Moon. The stock surpassed IBM in the market capitalisation and Steve Case, the AOL & # 8217 ; s CEO, was on every screen of major concern magazines. The stock reached the monetary value of $ 175 per portion in the center of April.
On April 20, something unusual happened. AOL closed down for the twenty-four hours, for the first clip that month. Peoples was stating & # 8220 ; wear & # 8217 ; t worry about it, it & # 8217 ; s merely some net income taking & # 8221 ; . The undermentioned twenty-four hours the stock dropped once more. Than the intelligence broke out that the endorsers growing wa
s out of the blue decelerating down. The stock dropped even more. In early June the bad economic Numberss came out and suggested that rising prices might be coming. Since AOL is an involvement rate sensitive stock, the monetary values dropped even more and reached $ 120 per portion at the terminal of June.
But, the battle wasn & # 8217 ; T over yet. In early August, Microsoft announced that they plan to give away users a free Internet entree if they use their merchandises. This was a low blow for AOL and the stock plummeted from $ 100 to $ 75 per portion in merely one twenty-four hours. Institutions were selling their AOL places like there was no tomorrow. There was 43 blocks of 100,000 portions or more sold in merely one twenty-four hours. The stock was merchandising at $ 75, which was really the same degree from where the stock began its tally in January. The undermentioned twenty-four hours, all those optimistic analysts at the beginning of the twelvemonth were altering their positions, stating their clients to wait and purchase AOL when it reaches $ 50. The underside was set. There was cipher else to sell, and the stock had no manner to travel but up.
As I write this, the stock is heading back to new highs and is merchandising about $ 140 per portion, about 100 % up from the point where everybody was stating & # 8220 ; there is no manner AOL is traveling up & # 8221 ; . A Zen Buddhist wouldn & # 8217 ; t be surprised.
