How a car accident in the 1990s told me everything I need to know about trading.

Market Update: Greetings from Nice, France, where the internet is spotty and the cheese is delightful. Consumer sentiment fell Friday, and that will likely grind us into some profit-taking over the next few weeks. Liquidity is still ample.  All 11 sectors are negative, and we’re red across the board. More than 7,000 stocks were negative Friday.

The song “Down With Disease” by Phish blasted out all four windows up Coastal Highway in Ocean City, Maryland. Sitting to my right was James, a guy who couldn’t be more proud to be Irish. In the back, three friends we met that week.

In the song, Trey Anastacio sings…

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
This has all been wonderful but now I'm on my way
But when I think it's time to leave it all behind
I try to find a way to
But there's nothing I can say
To make it stop
(Stop, stop, stop, stop)
(Stop, stop, stop, stop)
(Stop, stop, stop, stop)
(Stop, stop, stop)

And as… Stop stop stop stop went…James screamed, “Garrett! Stop the car!”

I smashed into the back of a Toyota Corolla, bouncing between the start and go because of the car in front of them. And in a rare case of Garrett-style lawyering - at 18 years old - I convinced the cops that the person who was responsible for the accident was the two girls in the car in the front. They’d nearly run the people I hit off the road about two miles back - which I saw in my rearview mirror.

Mom And Dad

My parents weren’t thrilled to hear about this accident. I went back and talked to them about it. The damage to the Jeep was minimal (though I’d eventually flip that Jeep four years later and shockingly survive that accident unscathed.)

My dad didn’t flinch. My mom didn’t either. They told me to get back in the car and go see my friends.

Keep driving.

And that was the funny part. When I did finally arrive to our destination, James and the boys were just arriving - having walked about three miles from the place of the accident to the final destination.

Never Stop

This is a tough market, and there will be losses. The most important thing is that you stay in the market. I still know people who didn’t buy into the equity market after 2008. They’re convinced the world will end and the market will crash.

And they’ve left the possibility of millions on the table.

Even though we’re in this red territory right now, there is much money to make.

Just because the market is under pressure … and just because you may have taken a loss in the last few weeks, the market has an upward bias over the long term.

Stay involved. Stay active. Never settle.

Keep driving.

Oh… and stay positive,

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