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My overall record in the stock market is not that great. Correction: it sucks. Speaking of sucks, Sux Flags has more or less stayed constant at a measly few bucks since I bought it and is currently slightly lower than what I remember buying in at, so that's a wasted investment. That is, unless I can remember to sell high in mid-summer, though any more that trick isn't as predictable. Cedar Fair has lost money over the years, too. But that one's not all bad; I haven't to fill out any tax forms for my partnership gains because I've lost money every freakin' year. Healthsouth scored me a little bit at the beginning and showed some monster promise but has since fallen back into mediocrity and is showing no signs of emerging anytime soon.

But, overall, I'm still ahead by a good few hundred bucks at least, due to one stock. When SunGard was bought out, their stock jumped something ridiculous, from $15 to $25 or thereabouts, that day. That was a good day to have several hundred dollars of their stock. So, what's the moral of the story? Lose all you want, and you still only have to hit it big here and there, or only once if you hit it big enough, to make the stock market work in your favor.

So, with this wisdom in mind, I've decided to take up stocks to a small extent once again. I've got too much money sitting idle in my bank account, and I'm far too poor and behind the curve financially to let that happen. I'd rather either win big or lose big than wallow in mediocrity and wonder what might have happened. The catch is, to get anywhere in the market you have to have loads of money in it. Which means, well, a lot of my house savings could end up in stocks in the near future.

Just to test the waters, I took some advice from what should usually be a reliable source and emptied my money market account (my old Sungard stock was cashed out for reasons unknown to me, so I had some dough laying around collecting dust) into a small-ball stock. And promptly lost one quarter of my investment on the same day. (To my friend's credit, he predicted this after the fact before I told him about it, so I should have talked to him more about exactly when and on what day to buy.) Woo hoo. But, unfazed by my losing record and general inability to invest wisely in stocks, I shall press on and continue to plunk down ever-increasing sums of money into a system I barely understand and can't predict. Hey, that's the American way ain't it?