Gekko

YOU may have heard about some, ahem, volatility in stock prices in the first part of July. It was sort of like riding a roller coaster that was running at double speed. The most educational day, of course, was Tuesday, July 16. For my sins, I happened to be spending the day at a brokerage house. The people weren’t visibly panicked—they just whispered to themselves as their whole lives passed before their eyes.

As you might recall, right around lunchtime, the free fall in the major averages, particularly the Dow and the S&P 500, suddenly turned into a violent updraft, as if the biggest checkbook in the world had just been handed to a drunken sailor. The “market,” that is to say the Dow and the S&P, wound up just a little up for the day after a three-digit round trip.

JD

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John Dizard

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YOU may have heard about some, ahem, volatility in stock prices in the first part of July. It was sort of like riding a roller coaster that was running at double speed. The most educational day, of course, was Tuesday, July 16. For my sins, I happened to be spending the day at a brokerage house. The people weren’t visibly panicked—they just whispered to themselves as their whole lives passed before their eyes.

As you might recall, right around lunchtime, the free fall in the major averages, particularly the Dow and the S&P 500, suddenly turned into a violent updraft, as if the biggest checkbook in the world had just been handed to a drunken sailor. The “market,” that is to say the Dow and the S&P, wound up just a little up for the day after a three-digit round trip.