There are no "benefits" to owning stock if stock goes down. There is nothing "exciting" about opening an account online if what you buy loses you money. There is no simple, foolproof way to make money, despite the assurances of fools that there is.
This era, this era that began with
Iomega (IOM Quote) and followed with Diana and ramped to
Chemdex which morphed to
Ventro (VNTR Quote) brought with it a fair degree of shame. But what bothers me the most about it is the incredible sense of entitlement that comes from the long run of profits this market generated.
As I listen to Steve Wallman, the former commissioner from the
SEC advertise the "benefits" of owning stock for this exchange thing, I want to tell him, "Wait a second Steve, how about the
risks of owning stock?" I want people to recognize that putting their Social Security into the stock market might actually be dangerous. I want people to know that when the market goes down and you lose money, it may not be temporary.
And it doesn't help to have these commercials out there still telling you about how easy it is to trade or how great it is to be long. When I was growing up, I remember this broker who put my Dad in
National Video. I think we didn't take vacations for a couple of years because of National Video. I think we ate more hamburger and less steak because of National Video. And I hated that broker for putting my dad in National Video. I had it beaten into my head that there was risk to owning stocks. And beaten into my dinner-table conversation.
Now our betters are on TV telling us about the benefits of owning stock and the ease with which we can trade stocks. Maybe their dads should have been hosed by their brokers with National Video, too. Then they wouldn't be so complicit in the all-out effort to make this job seem too easy for words.
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Jim Cramer
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