4 ms·

Up until the early 90's if you wanted a stock price intraday, you had to call your broker. Your alternative was waiting until the morning and getting previous

by JackFr 2y ago

Up until the early 90's if you wanted a stock price intraday, you had to call your broker. Your alternative was waiting until the morning and getting previous close from NYT or WSJ.

Bluestein 2y ago
Totally.- PS. Brings back memories. Won an US, national high school "paper trading" contest back in the day. Out of 14000 participants. Was quite proud ...
- Scoundreller 2y ago
  Trick to winning is to make a couple of insane bets that end up panning out, yeah?
  - Bluestein 2y ago
    Can't speak to that, but I remember spending hours and hours and hours pouring over stock listings after hours.- I distinctly remember we used a newspaper that I think is still around called IBD "Investors Business Daily", and they had this system that worked really well ("C-A-N-S-L-I-M").- And I remember pouring over thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of possibilities each day, and basically doing fundamental and technical analysis. I would filter out the candidates with broad technical analysis and then review the fundamentals of each, looking up each company on huge binders - yes, paper - from a subscription service the school had that had all financial and other info for all listed companies.- And it worked out. At some point, I caught a few big ones that just went ballistic. And it worked out great. One of the things it did is it taught me the value of effort. And I distinctly remember another thing, too. I distinctly remember being called by the organization to let me know I was winning, having won, all but certainly.- And the day after that, right before the closing of the ranking, running out of trades - because one had a limited amount of trades to perform during the competition. So I could not close a position I had, which had earned me a lot, so I wound up at a loss after having won, which, and I shall never forget this, ended up with my teacher basically saying, "I have seen how much effort you put into this, so I will give you -my account- to handle, so you can continue trading, so you will always remember that hard work and effort pays off in the end".- In the end I did loose my ranking and with too little time could not catch up, even with the second account.- So, I lost, but - in a way - I won, because I "won" that lesson ... And gush bump it, it's a lesson I've never forgotten.- So thank you, Mr. Brown.-
    - themdonuts 2y ago
      Did you become a trader?
      - Bluestein 2y ago
        Ah! The "fundamental" question :) No, I did not.- PS. Funny thing is I remember being asked, by the organization - whether I was going to go into finance at the time. Of course, I emphatically said that I was.- I guess "life" took over. It is what happens to you while you make other plans, after all ... ... but the lesson(s) learned have remained with me.-
    - Shocka1 2y ago
      IBD - The ol' cup and handle. I still use it to this day when selling puts.
      - Bluestein 2y ago
        I mean they had (O'Neil and Co.) some great, solid points.- (And, in the days before the internet their listings were great ...)
  - calfuris 2y ago
    I remember doing something similar with a website in high school. Some people made reasonable investments and did well. Some people made insane bets that panned out and did better. The winner correctly guessed that the site wouldn't properly account for stock splits and merges and went hunting for stocks that were about to merge.
    - Bluestein 2y ago
      > The winner correctly guessed that the site wouldn't properly account for stock splits and merges and went hunting for stocks that were about to merge. Smart, actually.-
- eitally 2y ago
  Ahh, the "Stock Market Game". It still exists: https://www.stockmarketgame.org/ https://www.stockmarketgame.org/ It's more sophisticated now, and like you, when I was in school (middle school in the late 80s), we just tracked our portfolio performance using daily newspapers. I remember buying a couple of symbols for companies I'd never even heard of, and knew nothing about. Probably not the best that this was a thing led by our social studies teacher.
  - Bluestein 2y ago
    Fascinating to know that it still exists. Thank you for bringing it up ... Actually, these "wargames" serve another IMHO crucial purpose - and another lesson I gathered from the whole experience, early: Learn to invest. And learn to invest as an structural part of one's development.-

by JackFr 2y ago

Up until the early 90's if you wanted a stock price intraday, you had to call your broker. Your alternative was waiting until the morning and getting previous close from NYT or WSJ.

Bluestein 2y ago

Totally.- PS. Brings back memories. Won an US, national high school "paper trading" contest back in the day. Out of 14000 participants. Was quite proud ...

Scoundreller 2y ago
Trick to winning is to make a couple of insane bets that end up panning out, yeah?
- Bluestein 2y ago
  Can't speak to that, but I remember spending hours and hours and hours pouring over stock listings after hours.- I distinctly remember we used a newspaper that I think is still around called IBD "Investors Business Daily", and they had this system that worked really well ("C-A-N-S-L-I-M").- And I remember pouring over thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of possibilities each day, and basically doing fundamental and technical analysis. I would filter out the candidates with broad technical analysis and then review the fundamentals of each, looking up each company on huge binders - yes, paper - from a subscription service the school had that had all financial and other info for all listed companies.- And it worked out. At some point, I caught a few big ones that just went ballistic. And it worked out great. One of the things it did is it taught me the value of effort. And I distinctly remember another thing, too. I distinctly remember being called by the organization to let me know I was winning, having won, all but certainly.- And the day after that, right before the closing of the ranking, running out of trades - because one had a limited amount of trades to perform during the competition. So I could not close a position I had, which had earned me a lot, so I wound up at a loss after having won, which, and I shall never forget this, ended up with my teacher basically saying, "I have seen how much effort you put into this, so I will give you -my account- to handle, so you can continue trading, so you will always remember that hard work and effort pays off in the end".- In the end I did loose my ranking and with too little time could not catch up, even with the second account.- So, I lost, but - in a way - I won, because I "won" that lesson ... And gush bump it, it's a lesson I've never forgotten.- So thank you, Mr. Brown.-
  - themdonuts 2y ago
    Did you become a trader?
    - Bluestein 2y ago
      Ah! The "fundamental" question :) No, I did not.- PS. Funny thing is I remember being asked, by the organization - whether I was going to go into finance at the time. Of course, I emphatically said that I was.- I guess "life" took over. It is what happens to you while you make other plans, after all ... ... but the lesson(s) learned have remained with me.-
  - Shocka1 2y ago
    IBD - The ol' cup and handle. I still use it to this day when selling puts.
    - Bluestein 2y ago
      I mean they had (O'Neil and Co.) some great, solid points.- (And, in the days before the internet their listings were great ...)
- calfuris 2y ago
  I remember doing something similar with a website in high school. Some people made reasonable investments and did well. Some people made insane bets that panned out and did better. The winner correctly guessed that the site wouldn't properly account for stock splits and merges and went hunting for stocks that were about to merge.
  - Bluestein 2y ago
    > The winner correctly guessed that the site wouldn't properly account for stock splits and merges and went hunting for stocks that were about to merge. Smart, actually.-
eitally 2y ago
Ahh, the "Stock Market Game". It still exists: https://www.stockmarketgame.org/ https://www.stockmarketgame.org/ It's more sophisticated now, and like you, when I was in school (middle school in the late 80s), we just tracked our portfolio performance using daily newspapers. I remember buying a couple of symbols for companies I'd never even heard of, and knew nothing about. Probably not the best that this was a thing led by our social studies teacher.
- Bluestein 2y ago
  Fascinating to know that it still exists. Thank you for bringing it up ... Actually, these "wargames" serve another IMHO crucial purpose - and another lesson I gathered from the whole experience, early: Learn to invest. And learn to invest as an structural part of one's development.-