Having, wanting, and the history of bull markets

Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen

«After a time, you may find that having is not as pleasing as wanting. It is not logical but is often true».

Spock, Star Trek, Season 2, Episode 1 – Amok Time, 1968

Dinner with friends

I had this interesting discussion with friends over dinner. Four couples, tasty food, great wine – maybe slightly too much, same age range, comfortable lifestyle. You understand the setting. Do you know what the bottom line was after this dinner? Well, the bottom line of our evening was that today we do not always want more of everything but rather the best of the essentials. Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, I did not sleep well that night. The bottom line of our discussion over dinner made me think!

Bull market – some history

When the Spaniard Hernán Cortés and his 550 companions reached the east coast of Mexico in 1519, he brought disease, death and destruction to the Aztecs and the bad habit of bullfighting. Over the decades, cultural appropriation has taken place in most Spanish-speaking countries. However, the custom developed slightly differently in each country. The Mexicans replaced the bullfighter with a bear. In Texas, which belonged to Mexico until 1845, they chose bulls with long horns (longhorns) and pitted them against chained grizzly bears in an arena. These bloody fights were particularly popular with the gold miners in California during the gold rush (1848-1854).

From below or from above – a question of technique

Bull and bear had different fighting techniques. While the bull attacked with his head down and tried to spear his opponent from the bottom up, the bear fought back, delivering a powerful paw strike to the attacker from the top down.

More history

The Spanish author Don Joseph de la Vega (Joseph de la Vega – Wikipedia), with his standard work on the Amsterdam stock exchange published in 1688, brought the bull and the bear onto the trading floor. In his moralising polemic „Confusion of Confusions“, the bull stands for rising prices, and the bear for falling prices, both because of their fighting technique and the designation „bullish“ for optimists and „bearish“ for pessimists has persisted to this day.

Why did it make me think?

So, Why did I not sleep well after this wonderful dinner with our friends, and why did it make me think? Because I think it is pure luxury to state «not always more of everything but rather the best of the essentials». Most of us live a privileged life, and we should keep that in mind.

Ladies and Gentlemen

As always, please share your opinion with me, but please remember (instead of hitting the reply button) to send your messages to: smk@incrementum.li.
Many thanks, indeed!

I wish you an excellent start to the day, a great weekend, and peace above all!

Yours truly,

Stefan M. Kremeth
Wealth Management
Incrementum AG – we love managing assets

Tel.: +423 237 26 60
Cell: +41 79 303 48 39
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9494 Schaan/Liechtenstein
Mail: smk@incrementum.li