forked from r0n0j0y/srdas.github.io
-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 0
/
TheDowofPooh.htm
181 lines (180 loc) · 12.3 KB
/
TheDowofPooh.htm
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<!-- saved from url=(0043)http://www.people.hbs.edu/sdas/pooh_dow.htm -->
<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>The Dow of Pooh</TITLE>
<META content="text/html; charset=windows-1252" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META content="MSHTML 5.00.2920.0" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY>
<P>
<CENTER><FONT color=#ff0000 size=5>The Dow of Pooh</FONT></CENTER>
<P>
<CENTER><FONT color=#ffff00 size=4>by Sanjiv Ranjan Das</FONT></CENTER>
<HR>
<P>(with apologies to Benjamin Hoff, who wrote "The Tao of Pooh") <BR>
<P><FONT color=#800000>"Stocks are fun in the long run," said Pooh, stopping to
catch his breath, as he had just finished a humungous jar of gooey honey, it
being Sunday, and he had just acquired a huge holding of his favorite sticky
stuff. "Christopher Robin said I made a killing in the stock market," he said,
turning to Piglet, who usually hung around Pooh on Sundays, since he loved the
silence of the woods and the soft slurping sounds of a bear polishing off a jar
of pure honey. <BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>"You killed a stork?" said Piglet in alarm, for he was
really worried now. He was smaller than a stork and he was suddenly scared that
Pooh bear may decide to kill him, especially if it helped him in holding his jar
of honey. Piglet could not imagine that Pooh would kill anything, but he told
himself, "I am a small animal with a small imagination," so I must be wrong, and
now I must be careful. He wondered if honey was such a good thing after
all.<BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>"No, he did not!" exclaimed Rabbit, who had just arrived
holding his copy of the Wall Street Journal. "Pooh would never kill anything.
All Pooh did was make a very profitable purchase of stocks, and now that the Dow
has risen, he has a lot of money," said Rabbit with great wisdom. "Pooh made so
much money that he need not worry about where his next honey jar is coming
from." <BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>Piglet was now very confused. "How Dow, honey money…" he
muttered, and edged away from Rabbit since Rabbit always made him feel small,
and he was a very small animal to start with. That was why he never spent Sunday
afternoons with Rabbit. And now, if Pooh was going to go around killing things
to make honey, life was going to become quite difficult. There was Pooh with a
huge holding of honey, and there was Rabbit with this huge roll of paper in his
hand, and here, thought Piglet, am I with nothing. So he began to edge
away.<BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>"Hold on little Piglet," said Rabbit grabbing him by his
shirt, "let me explain to you how Pooh made a killing. First he had a birthday
party. He received a lot of presents, mostly jars of honey, but Christopher
Robin gave him a five dollar note. Just as Pooh was going to the market to buy
honey with the five dollar note, Christopher Robin told him to invest it."
<BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>"But Pooh doesn't wear vests," said Piglet. <BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>"I don't wear vests, Rabbit," said Pooh who had just
tuned in, because he had stopped really listening closely to Rabbit several
years ago. <BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>"Not vest, invest," shouted an exasperated Rabbit, waving
his Wall Street Journal in the air. "To invest means to buy stocks with the
money," he said thinking that that was as clear as he could explain it.
<BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>"You can buy storks?" said Piglet, suddenly realizing
that this killing stuff might be a good thing. Maybe he could buy a very big
brother pig and then he would not have to live in fear of all those heffalumps.
<BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>"S-t-o-c-k-s, not s-t-o-r-k-s," shouted a very angry
Rabbit.<BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>"Oh," said Pooh, looking disinterested, a look he was
especially good at when Rabbit was around.<BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>"Ah," said Piglet, putting on his fully knowledgeable
face, "well I knew that all along." <BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>"There are big factories out there making honey, and they
are owned by many people called a company," Rabbit went on. If you want to own a
piece of the factory, you can buy a share of the company. That's what Pooh did
with his five dollars. Then when the company makes a lot of money, you get a
share of the profits." Piglet was very impressed. He could see how profitable it
would be in the company of a big brother pig. <BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>Rabbit went on, for he was now on a roll, hopping around,
finding his own story quite exciting. This was quite usual, and Rabbit would
often go on like this for hours, so usually Piglet would leave, for Rabbit
rarely noticed he was gone. There were some advantages to being a very small
animal. But this time Piglet was interested - he thought he needed a big brother
real bad. "The companies make a lot of honey, and make a lot of profits, and a
lot of money," Rabbit droned on. "But sometimes, the honey season is bad and
then they make a loss. Then you lose your stocks, and your share gets small."
<BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>Piglet, who felt he was getting this all clearly suddenly
found himself losing the thread. How could you lose with a big brother? It was a
sure thing. And then, why did Rabbit say that big brothers could get smaller? So
plucking up courage, he asked, "You mean, if I buy a stock, I may not get my big
brother, and if they cannot find me one, they may not give me back my money?"
<BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>Rabbit, who realized that Piglet was there after all,
said - "Yes, if the company fails, then you lose your money, but if it does
well, you get a lot more money back. That's why you have to be careful when you
buy a stock. Just don't buy any stock, only good ones. This is why I read the
Wall Street Journal - it contains information about companies and helps in
deciding which are good ones and which are bad ones. Buying stocks is not easy,
its very risky."<BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>"So sometimes you can lose money," ruminated Piglet, who
was beginning to feel quite happy that he did not have any money to lose. He
realized that sometimes there was an advantage in being such a small animal. But
he also felt a pang of regret. If only he were like Kanga. Kanga never lost
money - she had a pocket to keep it in, and it was always safe and her pockets
were deep. And she never bought stocks, because Roo was going to school and she
used her money to pay his school fees. But without money, how was Piglet going
to get a big brother, risk or no risk. Roo did not need one, he was going to
school and studying hard, and he would get a good job and make money and not
need a big brother. Piglet felt very sad.<BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>"You always lose money buying stocks," said Tigger, who
had come bouncing up and knocked Piglet over. "Sorry Piglet, I did not see you
there," said Tigger. Piglet realized he needed a big brother more than ever now.
<BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>"I just watch the Dow," said Tigger. "Every time it goes
up I feel good and I buy stocks, and when it goes down, I feel down and I sell
them. Somehow, I never make money the way Pooh does. "But I like watching the
Dow," said Tigger, "it jumps up and down just like me!"<BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>"What's the Dow?" asked Pooh suddenly, finishing his
second jar, and feeling a little lazy about opening the third. <BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>Rabbit, with a testy tone in his voice, said "Its a
number which tells you if your stocks are up or down. If the number is up you
are making money, if its down you are losing money. Everyday, the number comes
out in the Wall Street Journal here," said Rabbit, holding up the huge roll of
paper in his hand. "See - here on the front page is the Dow." <BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>Piglet squinted at it. There were so many numbers. Tigger
suddenly jumped up and down, shouting, "Its up! Its up," and kept trying to jump
higher, knocking down Piglet again.<BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>"If the Dow is just one number, why are there so many
other numbers?" asked a much more confused Piglet. <BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>"Because the Dow is a summary number for all the stocks,
and the other numbers tell you about specific stocks," explained Rabbit, who was
quite enjoying his role this afternoon. Rarely did he get the chance to use big
words when people were listening. "When the Dow goes up you get richer,"
concluded Rabbit, "and Pooh can buy more honey." Pooh, listening for once,
instinctively opened his third jar of honey. <BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>Eeyore had come slinking up, and asked, "Why is Tigger
jumping so much more today?" Eeyore hated Sunday afternoons, because the next
day was Monday, and he had been told by Christopher Robin that that was not a
good thing. <BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>"Tigger's jumping Because the Dow is up," said Piglet,
eager to show off his new wisdom on the stock market. "He is going to make a
killing, have you seen any storks around?" <BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>"Well then," said Eeyore, in a dismal tone, "if its up
today then it will be down tomorrow, its all too risky" and he immediately felt
very low. He decided he would not look at the Wall Street Journal for a week.
Better not to know - he told himself. <BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>"Rabbit, do you make a lot of money killing stocks?"
asked Piglet, sure he had the terms down right this time. <BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>"I do not invest in stocks," said Rabbit. "Its too hard.
Its always up or down and goes down just when I am up," admitted Rabbit. "I hate
taking risks," confessed Rabbit. "But I know how to read the Wall Street Journal
so I make a lot of money advising people about stocks they should buy. I make a
good living, even after paying for the Wall Street Journal," said Rabbit, who
had that air of superiority now, especially since he had decided to put his
glasses on.<BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>"So, does Pooh pay you to help him choose stocks?" asked
Eeyore, who was wondering if he should ask Rabbit to help him too. After all,
life could not get any worse, he figured.<BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>"No, Pooh doesn't ask me for help, he just buys the
stocks of those companies which make the honey he eats," said Rabbit. "For some
reason, he ends up making big killings." <BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>Piglet felt a fresh respect for Pooh now. He wondered how
many more adjectives he would need to describe Pooh, but 'predator' sprang to
mind easily. Piglet also figured it might be a good idea to ask Pooh to become
his big brother. <BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>"So Pooh, what's the secret of your success," asked
Piglet, with great awe. He felt very small all of a sudden. <BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>"Here's what happens," said Pooh, glad to get it off his
chest, and finally deciding to speak, just to keep Rabbit out of the
conversation. He was very tired of Rabbit's involved speeches. "Everytime I save
up five dollars, I go off to buy my favorite brand of honey. On the way, since I
pass Christopher Robin's house, I ask him if he needs honey, since I am off to
get some. But then, Christopher Robin tells me that I have enough honey, and
enough money, (for he keeps my piggy bank and my stocks), and why don't I invest
it in the stock market instead. At this point I am a little tired, and actually
don't feel like going to the honey shop, so I give it to Christopher Robin to
buy stocks, because I don't have a pocket like Kanga to keep my money safe
anyways. Somehow, I forget to read the Wall Street Journal, and I forget that I
have got these stocks, but there always is money and honey, so I just let it
be." <BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>"So you see, it all starts with honey. But its just too
complicated so I figure its best to let Rabbit worry about it," said Pooh
finally, wondering when the Dow would go down, just so that Tigger would stop
his infernal bouncing. <BR></FONT>
<P><FONT color=#800000>And Piglet was thinking - "Now, how the Dow? Where can I
get five
dollars?"<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR></FONT></P></BODY></HTML>