I worked for a VC named Bliss McCrum early in my career. He had been on wall street for about twenty five years before getting into VC mid/late career. He loved investing. He taught me technical analysis/charting and a lot of other things about stocks.
I used to ask him “why did that stock go down yesterday?” and he would always respond “more sellers than buyers.”
I loved that response and sometimes would ask him the question just to hear that answer.
What I really wanted to know was the underlying reason for more sellers than buyers. Did the company post weak earnings? Did a competitor enter their market? Was the CFO fired?
But Bliss would never take the bait.
Just “more sellers than buyers.”
His point, I think looking back after thirty years, was that markets are markets and you need to treat them as such and respect them as such. They are not always rational but the supply/demand for the stock doesn’t lie.
This week we are finally getting an Uber IPO. Its competitor Lyft’s stock has been weak post its recent IPO.
I don’t have a view on either stock but we will get to see if there are more buyers than sellers or the other way around.
I think this is a good thing, for those companies, for their shareholders, and for the entire tech and startup sector. We should let markets work. They do their job very well.
