July 2nd – This Day in Stock Market History

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Quote of the Day

For the truly long-term investor, the results of a prolonged bear or bull market may very well prove of little consequence or may even produce surprisingly paradoxical results…. If you’re a twenty-something just beginning to save, then get down on your knees and pray for a market crash.

–William J. Bernstein from his book, The Intelligent Asset Allocator

July 2nd – This Day in Stock Market History

July 2nd, 1881 – At 9:30am, President Garfield is shot at Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station. News hits Wall Street around 9:50 am and shares abruptly fall. Stocks would close out the day down about 4.5%. President Garfield would die 11 weeks later, on September 19th, 1881.

Sources: The New York Tribune, July 3rd p.2 and Wall Street and the Stock Markets: A Chronology

Best  July 2nd in Dow Jones Industrial Average History

1962 – Up 2.22%, 12.47 points.

Worst July 2nd  in Dow Jones Industrial Average History

2009 – Down 2.63%, 223.32 points.

Read of the Day

Charlie Munger once said: “I believe in the discipline of mastering the best that other people have ever figured out. I don’t believe in just sitting down and trying to dream it all up yourself. Nobody’s that smart…”

And there are very few articles that have as much knowledge, from such a great collection of brilliant people, as this interview in the CFA Magazine from 2003. Buffett, Bogle, Templeton, Bernstein, Neff (manager of Vanguard’s Windsor fund) and others sit down and answer questions on investing. One of my favorites in the article comes from Buffett:

“No matter how many winners you’ve got, if you either leverage too much or do anything that gives you the chance of having a zero in there, it’ll all turn to pumpkins and mice.”