Commentary:  The Bear Days of August

Bears are too pessimistic to take an extended
vacation. Only bulls spend the summer at the
beach. The resulting imbalance puts downward
pressure on the market: while the bull's away,
the bear will play. For happier times we must
await the bulls' tanned return. Our day will come.

Last week I discussed my bullfight passion.
Now I want to take up the question of whether
it is cruelty to animals.

A fighting bull is very different from its domestic
cousins. Its ancestors were the wild aurochs that
roamed free millennia ago. Today it is raised in
captivity for the bullfight, but it has never been
tamed. When it is separated from the herd, its
natural instinct is to attack. It is a magnificent
physical specimen, weighing over half a ton,
yet able to run as fast as a racehorse over short
distances. Its horns are the stuff of nightmares. 



Were it not for the bullfight, this grand animal
would be extinct. It has no other use to man.

Thus the operative question is whether the life
of a fighting bull is better than no life at all,
because those are the only two choices.

Consider the life of beef cattle: Weaned at 6 to 8
months, castrated, confined in a feedlot until a
year old, and then slaughtered.

Consider the life of a fighting bull: Born and
raised on a vast tract of land, fed and watered
but otherwise left alone in a herd, and then after
four years of age sent into the arena.

There it is poked with sharp objects, bloodied,
challenged, and eventually killed. That sounds
cruel. But consider:

First, by law it must die within 20 minutes. This
accords with what we have learned about "hot
blood" from soldiers in battle, that wounds
often aren't painful at first.

Secondly, even when it comes, I don't think pain
bothers bulls the way it bothers us. Our human
consciousness tends to add to our pain. If we
were in the bull's position, we would be thinking
"Why are they doing this to me?" and "Oh no, I'm
going to die." Those thoughts would intensify
our agony. But the bull seems to take it in stride.
He is focused on what is happening around him.
He doesn't brood about it.

Would a fighting bull be better off if he had never
lived? I don't think so. Except for the last half
hour, which isn't as bad as it looks, he has a
great life. That's not a bad tradeoff, when you
think about it.

Death awaits us all. How it happens is important
at the time, but in truth death is a small part of life.
The worst thing about it is the pain it causes our
loved ones. Surely that does not apply to bulls.

If we avoid the trap of anthropomorphizing, it
seems to me that being a fighting bull is a good
living (irony intended).

Even so, isn't it somehow immoral for humans to
enjoy a bullfight? That idea is surely Puritanical
priggery, the fear that someone, somewhere is
having a good time.

The pleasure of those who love the bullfight
deserves room in the equation.

No doubt you're all tired of this subject. I promise
there'll be no more of my bull.

Nor will I now move on to bear-baiting, though
the idea does have a certain appeal. I'm talking
about market bears, of course, not real ones.
 

The Market Day by Day

This was the GTI's fourth consecutive week in
the red, but the cumulative damage is only 5.5%.
In the old days we used to lose that much before
breakfast.

Returns for the Week:
Gilder Technology Index (GTI):  - 0.9%
Nasdaq Composite Index (NSD):  - 1.0%
S&P 500 Index (S&P):  - 0.9%
 

Makeup of the GTI:
The GTI companies are those "Telecosm
Technologies" in the Gilder Technology
Report whose stock is readily available to
investors. If a company is not traded on the
NYSE, AMEX, or NASDAQ National Market,
it is not in the GTI.

This past week there were 28 companies in
the GTI.

Advances vs. Declines:
Among the GTI stocks this week, there were
9 up, 18 down, 1 unchanged.

The GTI's Origin (1/1/99) to the Present

The GTI's Weekly Change, Last 52 Weeks

Trailing 3-Month Returns, Last 52 Weeks

 

The GTI fell 94.1% from its March 6, 2000,
high to its October 9, 2002, low.  Click here
for the details of its long recovery attempt.