Forum Archive Index - October 2000

["Grant Keymer" <grant@jenlogix.co.nz>]

Brian,

 

Well spotted concerning the NZ Dollar dive...

I looked on Reuters a few minutes ago and the highest bid for NZ$ was 0.3978...

 

This is bizarre.  Obviously some wealthy speculators are playing with our currency like it is a toy.

On recent performance it probably is!

 

Just as the NZ$ shot up on Tuesday before the announcement was made, now it plummets.

Fortunately I bought some US$ on Tuesday at the best rate for some time.

I guess it brings home the reality of how much we are just a cork floating on the ocean when it comes to events like this.

 

I'm very glad I didn't buy any FEG last week when they tumbled to $7.65.

It seemed tempting at the time, especially while the losses on my FFS continued to mount.

 

The salutary lesson out of this is "Speculate and ye shall be burned".

Those who bought in months ago before all the restructuring hype took over the market don't have any worries.

They just lost the opportunity to make a windfall profit like those in FLP did.

 

For the long-term investor, these events are of little consequence.

RULE #1  Pay off the mortgage first -- it's your best investment

RULE #2  Never play the sharemarket with borrowed money

RULE #3  Don't use money that you can't afford to lose

 

During the next few months, hopefully there will be some sort of rally in global share prices.

I for one will definitely continue to move funds offshore at opportune times.

UK-listed Investment Trusts which are listed on the NZ Sharemarket are one of my favourites.

They will never have stellar gains like NASDAQ stocks, but they never tank either.

 

It's been an interesting week...

 

Cheers

 

Grant Keymer
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