Friends meet, and quietly ask, "How much did you earn?" Many people have gained a lot, attracting more and more "fresh troops" into the field. These are the "marketeers."
The lives of these marketeers are not as smooth and easy-going as people think. They rise early to catch results from the New York Stock Exchange by radio or TV. If it's "up," it has a tranquilizing effect on our marketeer; "down," and it throws his heart into turmoil. Then its a scouring of the local economic dailies for information of where the profits are, and then "off to work," or, more exactly, off to the stock broker's.
These marketeers are a punctual bunch; none dares miss the opening quotes at 9:00 A.M. At ten, the morning closing quotes come in from Tokyo, often setting the tone for the second half of the morning in Taipei. If the news is bad, hearts hang suspended until it's time to "get off work" at 12:00 noon. At 12:30, all ears are glued to the stock analysis program of the Central Broadcasting Corporation, where experts opine on the market trends. The evening papers are a must, with special attention to the market quotations in the specialized papers. Finally, the marketeers call their brethren to exchange views and plot strategy for the coming day.
If his stock has done poorly and others have done well, the marketeer gets an empty feeling. Even the lucky ones whose stocks rise must concern themselves with whether or not they'll be able to sell them off later. It's hard to find peace even in sleeping.
This is a day in the life of the marketeer, full of worries, even when the going is good. No wonder that a few have landed themselves in the hospital.
In the past people talked about news from society, movie stars, the latest social occasions, and maybe exchanged the old dirty joke to break the ice with others. Today, just start talking stocks, and total strangers become confidants. Especially because the stock market in Taipei is small, the rumor mills are particularly busy, with speculation covering government policies, the stocks with the greatest potential, and, no doubt, more titillating tales.
In the past the stock market was seen as a dangerous place. These past couple of years, although the market is now widely played, many still do so in secret.
One story of a certain Ho family tells how the father consistently warned his children to stay away from the market, and the daughter in-law passed the same advice on to her husband. But the temptation was too strong, and soon the daughter-in-law had secretly begun to play the market. When one day she couldn't resist telling her husband about her successes, he revealed that he too had been playing. When they both opened up at a meeting of all the brothers and sisters, it turned out everyone was in the market. Finally, over dinner, the family patriarch, still not in on the game, solemnly told his children that it was perhaps time they learned about the market, and that he had earned a bit of money there and would teach them. It was all they could do to keep from exploding in laughter.
All it takes is one share to get in, which makes the attraction all that much more. It is said that even nuns can't resist the trend, and that a blind person is helped to the office by his family and has the specialized papers read to him in order not to miss a thing. For the retired, whose life has lost it's main focus, what's the use of sitting around bemoaning this and that; or for the unemployed person, or the housewife cut off from society--playing the market is a chance to stay active and gain self-confidence. The stock market is not just for the white-collar class anymore, and the skill and thirst for knowledge among the blue-collar participants is no less than that of their white-collar counterparts.
Tales of mutual help are also many: one among friends will take charge of information on the major investors, another researches tricks of the trade, and the old vets help along the rookies. At seven, two hours before the opening, people are already saving seats for others, and before nine each makes his or her informal reports and last-minute preparations for the day's trading.
Businessmen are even more enthusiastic participants. One boss of a big company has set aside Saturday mornings for a class for employees on the subject and set up a general stock fund which the employees can join. Some smaller businessmen, perhaps finding it hard to recruit labor or profits too low, take their money to the market. The lucky ones come away rich; the losers may have to close their companies and lay off their workers.
Whole industries have sprung up around the marketeers, including stock consulting companies and specialized publications. The rate of sales of these publications as well as the booming attendance at lectures and classes on the subject attest to the insatiable thirst for information on the part of the marketeers. Meanwhile, many talented people have been attracted by the market's spectacular rise to turn their skills to stocks. And the willingness to consume of those who make money in the market is also up: demand for restaurants, jewels, cars, and fashions is up. And for computers, too. With the opening of computer information systems, personal computers are selling rapidly, as is stock market software at tens of thousands of NT dollars a package. Even the pocket radio is now standard equipment for the marketeer.
All this has a price. Emotions are turned topsy-turvy with fluctuations in the market. Concentration at work suffers, the quality of service declines. Talk turns from family, friends, and romance to the day's closing quotations. Whatever happens in the market, is anyone "taking stock" of the human impact?
[Picture Caption]
Stock brokerages often hold activities to draw new clients.
A million people in Taiwan have entered the market--about five percent of the total population.
What goes up-does it really have to come down? Worries over market direction follow the "marketeer" day and night. (photo by Vincent Cheng)
People have been swarming to join the ranks of the marketeers--looks like everyone's got some scheme in mind. (photo by Vincent Cheng)
Though there's no advantage to kids' health to go along, one often sees them at the stockbroker's.
Stock-related books have reaped their own dividends from the market boom.
A million people in Taiwan have entered the market--about five percent of the total population.
People have been swarming to join the ranks of the marketeers--looks like everyone's got some scheme in mind. （photo by Vincent Cheng）
What goes up-does it really have to come down? Worries over market direction follow the "marketeer" day and night. （photo by Vincent Cheng）
Though there's no advantage to kids' health to go along, one often sees them at the stockbroker's.
Stock-related books have reaped their own dividends from the market boom.
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