Monday, May 24, 2010

The flight of Icarus

I would like to share a Greek mythology with you. This is not about Odysseus nor Sisyphus - it's about the story of Daedalus and more importantly, his son Icarus. You might not have heard of Daedalus but surely, you must have heard of the Minotaur. The Minotaur is the half man half bull creature that is found in the Labyrinth of Crete. There is a great story of how Theseus, the 'real' son of Poseidon (not the Hollywood fake version of Percy Jackson), survived the labyrinth and defeated the Minotaur. Daedalus, the craftsman who built the labyrinth, had to escape with his son Icarus. He thus built a pair of wings, one for each of them and gave his son strict instructions not to fly too high up near the Sun for the wax on the wings will melt and he will surely perish.


Icarus's over-confidence got the better of him


Icarus followed his father closely in the beginning, never straying too far from him. However, the adrenaline that surely must have pumped in his veins made him high and most importantly, made him forget about the dangers that was warned by Daedalus before taking on this journey. The initial cautiousness gave way to recklessness as Icarus flew higher and higher up the sky. So confident of his own ability to control his flight that Icarus could no longer hear Daedalus's warning.


Alas, it was too late. As Icarus flew higher up towards the Sun, the wax that attached the wings to his body melted and soon, he was flailing his bare hands in vain as he dropped like a stone into the sea.


Moral of the story:

If it's quite a bullish time, always be careful when the price of your stocks go higher and higher. Icarus had forgotten that the half-bull had been killed by Theseus and ignores his father's warning not to aim so high up the sky... to his own peril.

8 comments :

Createwealth8888 said...

Do this. Better to regret than to be sorry.

http://createwealth8888.blogspot.com/2010/03/be-far-better-at-selling-than-at-buying.html

PanzerGrenadier said...

Hi LP

I tend to agree. I am fortunate that I sold a number of my holdings to fund my new home and it was before Greece and euro problems became more prominent.

So now most of my money is in home equity and the interesting thing is that with my sales, I'll actually free up some cash for some value buys if the market continues to weaken.

Be well and prosper.

la papillion said...

Hi bro8888,

I read that :) thanks for your reminder :)

la papillion said...

Hi PG,

You're lucky...as your latest post described it :) But such is the way of the world, haha

Musicwhiz said...

Hi LP,

I haven't sold anything thus far this year; I've only increased my holdings thus far.

Regards,
Musicwhiz

la papillion said...

Hi mw,

You're a different animal from the rest of us, not to mean anything bad of course :)

As for me, the most impt transaction I've made is to sell off all my swiber (at a loss) and freed up a lot of stuck capital :)

Musicwhiz said...

Hi LP,

Good move there on Swiber. Looks like the folks there are gonna need a lot more capital in the near future, judging by their plans to list Kreuz on Catalist.....

Tan ku ku for dividend, don't mind me saying....

Cheers,
Musicwhiz

la papillion said...

Hi Mw,

Yea, I heard about the listing plans, haha :) I doubt anyone enters swiber for its potential to give dividends, so it shouldn't be a worry for most.

Should have left swiber when i had a lot of profits, hahah...always my regret :)