Saturday, May 19, 2012

Friend Zone (and stock markets)

Most guys know about the dreaded "friendzone". It's a slowly sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when you have just poured out your heart and soul to the girl of your dreams then she stares back at you with eyes wide not due to happiness but due to incredulity: "I thought of you like a friend... never felt that way for you" or worse "you are like a brother to me". The feeling is worse than when you got your exam paper back with a zero on it, worse than when you reached the airport and suddenly realized you forgot your passport, worse than when you are standing under the hoop and Shaquille O. Neal is bearing down on you.

Of course, to be rational it is no big deal, since you lose nothing, although the feeling is terrible. What you should remember is that being in the friendzone is somewhat like owning a stock which has dropped drastically and you know it will never go back up again.

Many traders go bankrupt because they hold on to a stock on its way down. "Oh but I paid RM10 per share for it, it has to go back up!" they think. Unfortunately life doesn't work that way - sunken costs should not be a consideration to base decisions on. The same applies to the friendzone; just because you have spent thousands of dollars buying a girl presents doesn't mean you shouldn't let go when it is clear that there is no chance.

As in trading, you should cut your losses and buy a new stock.

One concept in trading that is useful in terms of avoiding the friendzone is the "stoploss". Traders set a limit of say, 10 percent of the stock's original value, and if it falls by that much it has to be sold, no matter what they feel about it. So if you chase a girl you need to set a deadline, say after one year you haven't got her yet, it's time to pull out!


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