One of my clients called me on Thursday. He was anxious and out of breath, and spoke with great urgency.
He said to me, “Jone, sell it all. Sell everything, fast, right away.”
I tried to explain to him that the market was cyclical, and that in the long term stocks would return to normal.
He said, “John, let me tell you a secret. You know I’ve been married for sixty years now, and I’ve been your client for five.”
“Yes, go on.” I said encouragingly.
“Well, my wife Lucie has a sort of phobia about the market. When we got married, I promised her that I would follow in her parents’ footsteps and never venture into the stock market and always leave all our money under the mattress. Her great grandparents once lost everything in a great crash, and ever since then her family found investing in the market similar to crime.”
“Wow, Howard, I didn’t know that. I guess you want the money because the market is going down.”
“No, John, I want the money because she ordered a new mattress, and it is being delivered in two days.”
