It’s now September 12th. As usual, my timing sucks. I hate the place I was and more specifically the way I behaved the morning of 9/11. I am embarrased and ashamed. That was par for the course for me in those days. I cared about the market, me and my returns in those days. A real sweetheart of a guy.
I was reading Jeff Matthews tonight and his post – Where were you ? It is a good one. Honest. He admits the following:
I rode up the elevator with another guy, speculating on which airline the plane belonged to, because the stock would get crushed on the opening. It sounds callous, but that’s how you think in this business—or did, before 9/11.
That’s the nature of the beast I guess. I remember shorting Brocade and some Spiders and was complaining about the shitty fills. Oy.
My fund had really done really well from it’s start in 1998 right up to 9/11/ 2001. I was pretty flat the market for most of the year. I was hosting a one minute stock show on Howard Stern (for Arizona) and that whole year was just a smart ass. On the morning of, I was doing my one minute stock report about 2 minutes after the first plane hit. Mark Haines was speculating that a small commuter plane had flown into the Tower.
I started the broadcast with the following: “A disgruntled E-Trade daytrader has flown into The World Trade Center.” It was live and I could not take that back. As I finished, I knew I had said something so really stupid. I could not take the words back. They say that Comedy = Pain plus Time. No amount of time could make this funny.
I wish I could take that back. I am really Sorry.
I still have a sloppy mouth. I am still an ass, just trying to be less of one. That is my deep personal scar and I am so grateful for the leniancy in light of so much pain suffered by others on that day.
Man, that takes guts to admit. Very few people who act like asses have the courage to take responsibility for being an ass, look on the bright side.
good post!
angry = thanks for the laugh. My wife says I have that courage everyday :)
I remember walking out of a make or break sales meeting with a monstrous client that we hoped would generate a $50 million deal. Half of dozen of us were walking back to our office and passed a storefront with a TV in window. People were huddled around the TV on the sidewalk and we were oblivious to any news. As we walked up, the first thing I saw was a plane hammering into the WTC and my stomach fell to the sidewalk. We asked what had happened and no one really knew. When we got back to our office the cell phones started ringing and everyone started heading home as their spouses called to coordinate picking up their kids. I remember being dazed for days.
While I abhor violence, I don’t believe I would always turn another cheek. I must say I felt a fair amount of pride when I saw Americans kicking the shit out of the Taliban and carpet bombing their positions indiscriminantly with B52s.
As for the mouth thing, we all do stupid shit. As one of my teachers used to say, my mouth wasn’t always attached to my brain. I had surgery after high school to repair the problem. Sounds like you have the same physical ailment. I know a doctor……….
Btw, we got the deal..
Congrats on the deal and thx for comments