Don’t know about you, but it’s getting harder to stay positive with the economy and bailouts and other negativity flowing, but hey, at least condom sales aren’t hurting:

According to data from the Nielsen Company, condom sales went up approximately five percent in 2008’s fourth quarter and around six percent this January, compared to last year. Just as millions of Americans resorted to nesting during the Great Depression, they are repeating the trend again in our current recession.

What empirical data can we draw from this? More people staying home and doing the horizontal bop instead of out spending money at the mall?

Or maybe it is just people afraid that if they don’t use it, they will lose it?

There are physiological factors, but, you know, sex slumps sort of beget sex slumps. Being sexy and having sex begets more sex. Sex is its own aphrodisiac. If you don’t use it, you can lose it. Testosterone levels — which men and woman have — start to diminish and your body and mind get habituated to not having sex.

Wish I had more to say on this topic but there are sometimes where quotes and links speak for themselves.

You might have heard last week that cereal giant Kellog’s has stopped sponsoring Olympic swimming sensation Michael Phelps because he [gasp] was caught smoking something in a bowl in a picture in a British tabloid. He hasn’t admitted to smoking pot, but it seems a little like Clinton saying he ‘didn’t have sexual relations with that woman.’

So who are some of Phelps other sponsors that could turn tail and run? AT&T, Powerbar, Omega, VISA and Speedo. Making matters worst, USA Swimming has suspended Phelps for three months.

Dave Winer, a self-admitted once upon a time (but no more) weed smoker, has one of the more reasoned takes I’ve read to date about the statement that Kellog should have made, rather than throwing Phelps under the chronic bus:

What a bunch of stinkers they are at Kellogg’s. They could score so many points by saying something like this: "We don’t encourage pot smoking, but we understand that some people do it. We have so many bigger problems to tackle in this country, and Michael Phelps is such an incredible young man and hero, we decided to be heroic ourselves, and cut him some slack, and keep him on the corn flakes box."

If I were working in the marketing department at General Mills, makers of the famous Wheaties cereal and Kellog major competitor, I’d suggest it was time to rally behind Michael Phelps and pick up his sponsorship.  General Mills has one of those rare marketing opportunities involving an incredible athlete and should consider not staying in the grand stands. They wouldn’t have to glorify pot smoking, but they could send the message that teamwork involves sticking by your teammates, something Kellog isn’t doing by distancing itself from someone they once supported.

Then again, they’re already ahead of Kellogg in the cereal wars, so they don’t have to take any risks entering the Phelps media maelstrom. They can sit back and let Kellogg take heat for getting behind a champion who allegedly smoked pot. The thing is Phelps doesn’t fit the stereotype of the lazy, out of work pot smoker in any shape or form.

Really let’s put the pot smoking allegation aside for a moment and look at what Michael Phelps has accomplished in the pool. It’s like looking at what Pete Rose did as a player.

Phelps the masterpiece of swimming tapestry 

Phelps did something no other human being has ever done before by amassing eight gold medals swimming in the freaking Olympics! Don’t know the last time any readers got in the pool, but swimming is hard, hard work. I get tired swimming one or two laps in the pool and I don’t smoke and barely drink. Swimming fast is a thousand times harder. Phelps defines the word champion. He deserves to be on Wheaties boxes and getting major sponsorship deals everywhere.

Now let’s talk pot. Ooooooo.

Pot isn’t evil

Why we haven’t decriminalized this drug is beyond me. Somebody can get wasted on beer, wine and hard liquor but gets in trouble for smoke a blunt? Strange. Let’s legalize marijuana, heck, General Mills and Kellogg both can make their own brands of weed and spend our tax dollars jailing the bigger criminals in the world.

As for the crazy talk about boycotting Kellog? Please. Over this dropping Phelps news Kellogg is showing they don’t have any stones but boycotting their many products because they are being politically correct? Equally dumb.

The time for marijuana legalization is coming

Someday soon – perhaps over the next 10 years - we’re going to see an uprising of companies and/or more major mainstream celebrities (not celebrities like Snoop Dogg or Cheech and Chong) stand up and say: enough is enough on marijuana being illegal. Jail should not be a place for pot smokers. And if you are ‘caught’ smoking pot somewhere where you can’t hurt anybody or anything, you shouldn’t be treated like you did something horrible. This could be the kind of change President Obama talked about. Wouldn’t it be something if marijuana was legalized under the Obama administration and it helped turn the tables on the national deficit? Don’t get too excited if you read the tea leaves in his inauguration speech. But hey, who knows.

But pot smoking is not, not, not cool everywhere all the time. If you are caught driving a vehicle and hurt somebody or their property while stoned, I have zero sympathy for what your sponsors or the police do to you. Yes, that includes Michael Phelps if he does smoke the stuff recreationally. Let’s not torture the guy for having a little fun.

Maybe I’ve got my investing philosophy screwed up, perhaps I should be taking my chops from horny commercial watchers in the Google Finance discussion area like the following (not!):

source: Google Finance CCTYQ discussion (disclaimer: I own CCTYQ stock)

Seriously, other than for comedic value, I’m not sure why Google Finance offers unmoderated comments like these on stocks. What value does this provide to investors?

Then again maybe a breast ad index should be made for illustrative purposes in each prospectus

This morning when I learned that Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is being charged by the SEC for insider trading that allegedly occurred on June 28, 2004. The complaint involves his selling of his 6% stake in mamma.com. The first thing I thought was: wonder what Mark was blogging about around this time?  What did he write specifically, if anything, about Mamma.com?

For those not familiar, Mr. Cuban blogs somewhat regularly and passionately at BlogMaverick.com and on June 28, 2004 at 9:13am he wrote a post titled "Mishegaas…again" offering a rant against a Tribune news writer:

If they [Tribune Company] only knew how many times I have told brokers and possible investors that they shouldn’t buy Trib stock because if they can’t get simple details on their sports pages right, how can you trust their accountants? Corporate culture either values accuracy or it doesn’t. The Tribune Company obviously doesn’t.

This might invoke a ‘who cares’ response, but a search through his blog reveals he had written specifically about Mamma.com. Let’s rewind the tape to Cuban’s post "Today was a very good day" on March 17, 2004 which is the first time he mentioned mamma.com on his blog:

To start things off, the SEC filing for my purchase of shares in Mamma.com hit the tape. Everyone wanted to know why. Why this stock. Particularly when I usually am opposed to investing in any non dividend paying stocks at all.

… I invested in mamma.com for the same reason I invested in Netidentity.com back when it was known as mailbank.com. I love businesses with low overhead, that don’t need to be technology leaders to succeed, that generate cash that they can put in the bank, and at some point, hopefully payout to shareholders. I think mamma.com has that potential.

This was some three months before he sold the Mamma stock.

Fast forward approximately nine months after selling Mamma.com to March 2, 2005 when Cuban blogged about "Naked Shorts … What I have learned" and provides specific detail why he sold the Mamma stock:

I wanted to reference Mamma.com. I had purchased stock in Mamma.com in hope that it could be an up and coming search engine. I thought I had done some level of due diligence. Talked to the company management. Talked to some employees who worked in sales. Read the SEC Filings.

… Then the company did a PIPE financing. Im not going to discuss the good or bad of PIPE financing other than to say that to me its a huge red flag and I dont want to own stock in companies that use this method of financing. Why? Because I dont like the idea of selling in a private placement, stock for less than the market price, and then to make matters worse, pushing the price lower with the issuance of warrants. So I sold the stock.

Through Cuban’s blog, we get a curious glimpse of what he was thinking at the time. Will be interesting to see what happens. I’m kind of surprised that none of the mainstream news reports of the incident mention Cuban’s blog posts around the time.

Wired does point out that Cuban is a majority partner in the site sharesleuth.com which is an independent web-based site that exposes securities fraud. D’oh. 

Innocent until proven guilty

It’s important to keep in mind that these are only charges by the SEC (read full PDF here) at this time, Mr. Cuban has not been found guilty of any wrongdoing yet. 

As we allege in the complaint, Mamma.com entrusted Mr. Cuban with nonpublic information after he promised to keep the information confidential. Less than four hours later, Mr. Cuban betrayed that trust by placing an order to sell all of his shares. It is fundamentally unfair for someone to use access to nonpublic information to improperly gain an edge on the market.

If Cuban is found guilty, then he’ll join Martha Stewart who used information gleaned privately for financial gain. Stewart did jail time. Would Cuban face jail time too? This is serious business. The $750,000 Cuban saved by selling before the stock price plummeted allegedly with insider knowledge would not be worth the risk.

Readers already know I was adamantly against the bailout. I’m against bailing out any insurance company, any automaker and, well, any company period. Why has 2008 become the year of the bailout? America isn’t about bailing out businesses. If your business — or mine — isn’t free to succeed and fail, that’s not business. That’s not America.

This morning, CNN shared a pie chart of where the $700 billion bailout money is going pictured above.

$40 billion of this money has gone to AIG which has now been caught in two junket scandals after receiving bailout money. They are still losing money, says the article:

The insurance giant reported a $24.5 billion quarterly loss yesterday … Those record losses come on the heels of a government-extended $85 billion loan to AIG in September, followed by $38 billion more in October as the company teetered on collapse.

Why do we keep propping up this company?  It sounds like we aren’t just giving this money to AIG without any strings attached, it is a 10% loan, but does this seem like a smart investment? I don’t think so.

It’s not just the American auto industry, retailers are hurting too. Circuit City filed for bankruptcy this week and Best Buy lowered their profit forecast after showing same store sales down almost 8%. They are labeling these times the most difficult climate they’ve ever seen (emphasis mine):

"In 42 years of retailing, we’ve never seen such difficult times for the consumer," Brian Dunn, president and chief operating officer of Best Buy, said in a statement. "People are making dramatic changes in how much they spend, and we’re not immune from those forces."

What’s next, bailouts for American retailers? Hope not.

President-elect Obama, who I voted for, wants to see some Amercian auto companies bailed out during his transition period. Bailouts are one area Obama has it wrong. McCain was for bailouts too, so a vote for him would have been no better in this regard.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like seeing people lose their jobs and I realize the big American automakers (GM, Ford) are in trouble, but where these businesses fail, others will come in and take their place if it is meant to be. And people can get jobs working for those businesses. Or maybe it’s time to change to a different industry?

Damage done since the government already agreed to the $700 billion, how the pie gets served up is worth discussing. Should companies like GM and Ford get the money over AIG? What about retailers? How far do these bailouts go?

Don’t you love it when merchants point their fingers at your credit card company and the credit card companies point their fingers at merchants? That’s what happened to me the $46.95 purchase made at Wal-Mart on 11/2/08 for the AC/DC track pack.

The credit card company said that it would take *8* days for the bogus transaction to be removed from my account. After being pressed they told me that I could go to the merchant and if the merchant called them they would remove the charge right away.

So, I called Wal-mart and was told to call their financial department at 479-277-2643. I did that and was told by them that they didn’t call credit card companies direct.

Gotta love it. I pressed on and was able to convince the lady to stay on the line for a conference call with my credit card company. After going through the security check and explaining I had the merchant on the line in a conference call the person transferred me to the security department.

Wait on hold for 5 minutes. Another person came on the line and listened to the story, looked at the account and said they would need to talk to the merchant on the merchant line. The merchant gathered a fax number and faxed my credit card company a statement saying there was only one charge. The response?

It would take 2-3 days for the bogus charge to be removed from my account. Why, I asked does it take this long? It was my understanding that this charge would be removed as soon as the merchant talked to them. Did that and it still takes 2-3 days?

I don’t understand these credit card companies. I mean, I do. If you want to charge something that takes what 30 seconds? But when there is a mistake it takes several days to fix? How does that work? Also, this one really blows my mind.

When you go to pay your bill online it takes two days to post your payment unless you want to pay $15 for a "rush payment" service and then your payment can be posted within one minute of midnight the same day.

When I wrote last week about not letting the credit card companies use you, instead you need to use them. They make it more difficult for that kind of relationship to exist, don’t they?

At the end of the day, I had over an hour of my time forever used up getting a duplicate charge removed. Wal-mart was more helpful than my credit card company, but they both forced me to do most the work, which is not cool. They shouldn’t have put the customer in the middle. Looking at the statement above it’s pretty obvious that it’s a mistake. How often does somebody make the same purchase tax included two days apart at the same store?

 My second spook of the day. This was actually written and intended to be published yesterday, but I never got around to pushing the button (oops), so there’s a trick or treat on Halloween. What am I talking about? Having to break our days without credit cards streak two days shy of 500. Before you start bashing me for being weak and giving into the credit devil during economic meltdown times, here’s the logic behind why it was done.

But first let me point out a couple important points:

1. I’m not being paid to write this post or promote Best Buy.
2. I’m not in the Best Buy affiliate program or being compensated by Best Buy in any way. Have never been in their affiliate program. As long as they are associated with Commission Junction it’s unlikely I’ll sign up.
3. I don’t even own Best Buy stock (BBY), but will admit to thinking about buying some lately. There are some good stock deals out there, as long as you think the market is at and/or near the bottom. Who knows on that one.
4. I am just a Best Buy customer taking full advantage of the many deals they offer. Think of me like a coupon clipper on steroids.

Getting the true best, best buy

Some of you might remember me writing recently about being upgraded to the Best Buy Premier Silver Reward Zone. A requirement of staying in this club is spending at least $2,500 a year at Best Buy or bestbuy.com or, as I learned, their online mall. While I’m not going to rehash that post, you can go read it if you want the details of the program, a couple things stuck out at me:

Premier Silver members earn 1.25 points per $1 USD spent while Best Buy Reward Zone Mastercard with Premier Silver members earn 2.50 points per $1USD.

So by getting and using their credit card I’d earn double the points (and 1.5x more than I was earning before earning the Premier Silver membership) So for the $2,500 spent here is how the program awards points for purchases made at Best Buy and bestbuy.com:

Regular Best Buy Reward Zone program
$5 for every $250 spent
$2,500 spent = $50 in reward certificates

= net: $2,450

Best Buy Premier Silver Reward Zone program
1.25 points per $1 spent
$2,500 x 1.25 = 3,125 points / 250 = $62.50 in reward certificates

= net: $2,437.50

Best Buy Reward Zone Mastercard (BBRZM) with Premier Silver
2.50 points per $1 spent (at Best Buy and bestbuy.com)
$2,500 x 2.50 = 5,000 points / 250 = $100.00 in reward certificates

= net: $2,400 (4% savings)

So by getting and using their credit card and staying in their Premier Silver program I’d receive an additional 4% over whatever price I was paying. Since Best Buy already matches the price of any other retail store, this is a way to use a credit card to save money.

That comes with one important caveat.

Paying no finance charges

So after applying and being approved, they sent me the card and immediately I registered online and linked to a bank account to make sure the balance is paid every month before finance charges are ever applied. There is a 25 day grace period where if you pay the balance, you pay no finance charges.

Last night I used the credit card at Best Buy for the first time. I wanted to thank the guy at the door for saving me an additional 4%. That more than covers the gas to go back and forth from the store.

More points in the online mall

It gets even better.

Credit card owners can get 1 point for every $2 spent not at Best Buy on the credit card, including at the online mall. Considering at their online mall there are deals to earn up to 20 points for every $1 USD spent and points can start adding up fast. 

I mentioned in my last post an online mall deal they have to get 250 points for spending $50. When we went to the beach recently we booked a room for $53 through one of the online mall merchants. This merchant awarded 3 points per $1USD spent. With the promotional 250 points, this earned us 390 points. If I’d used (and since I didn’t have the credit card yet, I couldn’t) the BBRZM for the transaction I’d have received an additional 26 points (1 point for every $2 spent).

More points in game club and racing club

Probably my biggest purchases, collectively, throughout the year at Best Buy are games. Upon digging into the My Reward Zone website, I learned they have an additional Reward Zone Gamers Club which awards $10 for every $150 spent on videogames on top of your normal rewards.

So let’s go back to the $2,500 spent over a year and say I spent that all on videogames at Best Buy or bestbuy.com and used the BBRZM, here is what the point total would look like:

2.50 points per $1 spent (at Best Buy and bestbuy.com)
$2,500 x 2.50 = 5,000 points / 250 = $100.00 in reward certificates
+ $2,500 / $150 = 16 x $10 certs = $160.00 in reward certificates

= net: $2,240 (10.4% savings)

Now we’re getting into some serious savings. But it doesn’t stop there, they also have a Racing Club which awards points for (member link only):

As a Reward Zone® program Racing Club Member, you’ll get bonus points when the Best Buy™ Racing team finishes in the top 10, exclusive content and sweepstakes opportunities. I

Even though I’m not a big racing fan, joining this program for free is a no brainer. If the Best Buy driver Elliot Sadler places in the top 10 here is the details:

1st place: quadruple points (4x) for each qualifying purchase the week following Elliot’s race and when using BBRZM: 5x!
2nd thru 5th place: triple points (3x) - when using BBRZM: 4x!
6th thru 10th place: double points (2x) - when using BBRZM: 3x!

Elliot only has three more races this season (see Sadler race results), but he’s placed in the top 10 a total of 8 out of 28 races shown on the race recap page (Best Buy doesn’t show results for 10/19 Martinsville Speeday where he placed 41st or 10/26 Atlanta Speedway where he placed 25th). His best finishes to date have been 4th place (7/27/08 Indianopolis Motor Speeday) and 5th place (6/29/08 New Hampshire International Speedway), so that would have been 4x points for using the BBRZM the week following both those finishes.

Overall in 2008 thus far there would have been eight additional weeks to earn bonus points for those in the program based on Elliot’s race results. No idea if they’ll be continuing this promotion next year, but this sounds like additional bonus points for simply timing your purchase around Elliot’s top 10 places.

Don’t even have to be a big racing fan to like this deal.

Using credit cards isn’t a bad thing

Reading back through my post on why we ditched credit cards altogether, I wouldn’t change a word. We wanted to do something radical with our finances and I think 498 days later we’ve achieved that goal. Getting this credit card wasn’t about getting credit at all. I think our motive is strong.

Our goal to add more to our retirement hasn’t panned out with the way we hoped the way the market has performed over this time. In fact, retirement outlook has gotten much worse. Not because of credit card debt since we didn’t have any, but because our retirement accounts have lost a lot of value.

Not looking for sympathy votes as I know a lot of people have it worse than us. I’m hopeful that these portfolios will turn around when the economy gets better. Also, planning on getting in on the stock market at/near a bottom and be part of the group that makes money when/if it bounces back.

But back to credit cards. Something that occurred to me over these last 498 days is that they do have a lot of value when used for specific purposes. A few times I’ve thought about breaking this streak for the reason explained herein.

We certainly don’t need to do this Best Buy Reward Zone card, but hopefully the logic in the numbers above pans out. If we are going to spend the money anyway and as long as we do not pay any finance charges (sorry for the double emphasis, but it bears repeating) it is a smart decision to use the BBRZM for purchases at Best Buy and their website.

It’s also important to point to one section written 498 days ago:

Historically, we haven’t been very good about keeping zero balances on our credit cards. It’s not like we charge everything, but we are paying interest charges on these purchases which is money that could be saved instead of going into the credit card coffer

Since the BBRZM is the only credit card we have, I don’t think we’ll have any problems with this going forward. I realize this could be inviting the devil back into our lives, but believe the rationale behind this decision is sound.

I’m trying to encourage my wife to check the online mall now for as many online purchases as possible. This way we can increase the discounts. Not every store we shop at is included and it wouldn’t be practical to do every purchase through them, but we can make many purchases through them.

The only breakdown I can see in this logic is that we carry some kind of balance and pay finance charges. Then it becomes an additional expense/liability, not a bonus/perk. Your turn. Was this a bad idea? Do you see some flaw(s)?

In these current economic times the last thing many people are thinking about is spending more money on gadgets, gizmos and goodies, but consider for a moment if you are already spending the money scattered around at different stores what perks might come your way by making more/most/all these purchases through a single business. Keep reading, as this doesn’t mean you can’t shop at competing stores and still earn perks.

I remain a fan of club cards and reward programs. My feeling is if you are spending the money, why not take advantage of any perks and extras, within reason of course (you don’t spend thousands to buy some $5 piece of junk for ‘free’) that are thrown my way. If you’ve ever bought anything at Best Buy then you’re probably familiar with the Best Buy Reward Zone card. If you spend more than $2,500 USD per calendar year using the card starting this year you can earn their Premier Silver card.

Once you’re a Premier Silver member you get the following additional perks:

• 25% point bonus on qualifying purchases. Typically you earn 1 point per USD spent. Premier Silver members earn 1.25 points per $1 USD spent
• Point banking. Instead of receiving smaller denomination Reward Zone certificates Premier Silver members can bank the points and use them for bigger ticket items and shopping for speciality items in the awards catalog
• VIP events. When Best Buy hosts special events in your area, you’ll be a priority guest. We’ve been to a few of these special events and they are pretty cool. There are drawings and giveaways, special deals where you can save additional money on purchases.
• 45 day return policy. Whether you buy online at bestbuy.com or in store, you’ll get a little more time to return any item if it doesn’t meet your satisfaction
• Free BestBuy.com standard shipping on qualifying purchases. Take that Amazon.
• Dedicated Premier Silver services telephone number. 1-866-797-7367.

Since we routinely spend an average of several hundred dollars a month, and have been doing so for over five years, I’m a little surprised we didn’t make it into their Premier Silver Reward Zone sooner. We were members for years when you had to pay $10 a year to be in the club. Looking at our purchase history, we earned well over one million points a long time ago. Best Buy is our offline retail store of choice to buy games, music and bigger ticket electronics (like computers).

Tiered programs are very common in casino player club programs. The more you spend (gamble) the more perks you earn. It doesn’t matter what you win or lose to the casinos, only that you cycle through lots and lots of money. Smart marketing.

Shop at competitors and earn reward points

Best Buy also has a Premier Silver online mall [member link, login required: http://onlinemall.myrewardzone.bestbuy.com/] where you can earn Reward Zone points by shopping under their affiliate code at other online businesses. I didn’t realize this until looking around. I hinted at this in the opening paragraph. Did you realize you can earn as much as much as 20 points per $1 USD spent shopping for things through the Best Buy online mall? I didn’t.

Until Oct 31, 2008 if you purchase a single item worth at least $50 through the mall you’ll earn 250 additional Reward Zone Points [member link, login required: https://myrewardzone.bestbuy.com/premier/offerDetails.jspx?offerCode=2861]

Tip: make sure you are logged into the reward zone before following any links or your purchase may not be tracked. I noticed when testing this that you seem to get logged out a little too often for my liking. If you aren’t logged in then your online mall purchases under Best Buy affiliate code won’t be tracked.

For those who don’t like Best Buy

In the past when writing about Best Buy I’ve been a little surprised how many people don’t like them and voiced that in the comments area. I’m not some huge Best Buy fanboy and don’t own any of their stock, it’s just another retail electronics store that happens to have a lot of things we like to buy. Where else should we shop for these things offline? Don’t say Circuit City, their prices suck.

Since Best Buy will match any other store’s price (you just have to ask) why not buy from them and keep track of all your purchases in one place? They may do stupid stuff like have a different websites that they show you in store, so be smart and print out any prices from the website and be sure to take note that it is not a web-only deal. Like with anything else in life, read the fine print.

Some of the complaints I’ve read about the program seem to be from people who didn’t read the fine print. Remember, the little print taketh away so always read the program rules carefully and do not rely on the people who work in the store to have all the right answers. Since you have 45 days as a Premier Silver member if you find out you aren’t credited for points and/or were misled on a purchase, don’t just bend over, take it back to the store and buy elsewhere.

We continue to see history being made in the financial markets. In March 2000 was previous DOW rate increase record for a single day of +499. Today, Columbus Day October 13, 2008, 22 days from election 2008, the DOW closed over 900 points.

The guy with the shaved head pictured below, Neel Kashkari was picked to head the US department’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, AKA bailout.

Kashkari looks more like he should be in a rock band or starring opposite Vin Diesel instead of handling who will get money out of the bailout (what assets are purchased), but hey, a weekend with his talk along with President Bush working the weekend has led to a good market Columbus Day.

Good day for the stocks I own, but a long way from getting back all the money lost the last few weeks: Google +13.79%, Yahoo +8.38%, Apple +13.65%, Intel +10%, Visa +12.38%.

As I told a friend in chat who said if he had it he would dumped a bunch of money in, I’m cautiously optimistic. It’s only one day and we’ve seen several 300+ DOW rally days only to be followed by a larger number of negative days. I’m not sure if we have seen the bottom yet in the market but we’ll know more by the end of this week.

Update 10/28/08 1:01pm PST: 2nd record day, DOW almost +900 to close around 9,000.

Last week I hooked back up the Slingbox so that I could follow CNN’s coverage of the financial meltdown. You might have noticed more screencaps I’ve taken from Slingbox output on my computer monitor. Something I’ve noticed at on CNN is they show the closing bell on Wall Street and there are always people clapping. Why do they do this, I’ve been wondering, especially days like today when the DOW ended up down more than 600 points.

What are they applauding? How bad it is? The fact that the day is over? I would think a picture of people crying or hanging their heads would make more sense than a group applauding.

Time to consult the search engines for an answer, which led me to this article from investopedia.com:

Many consider the act of ringing the bells to be quite an honor and a symbol of a lifetime of achievement.

An honor to ring the bell? Seems like that was the case for Joe Gibbs Racing’s Marc Davis. Could it be as simple as applause for the person ringing the bell and not the results of market? The impression a somewhat regular Joe like me has is that this applause is for the market results, but maybe I’m wrong.

If you know why these people are applauding at the closing bell every day, please use the comments/trackback below to explain.

Update 10/15/08 1:02pm PST: Clapping again at the second biggest DOW selloff ever. Weird. My friend from Texas writes: “There’s some people around here that’d clap at a hanging, so clapping for strange stuff doesn’t surprise me anymore.”