Monday evening – another day, another loonie…

One of the stranger things about the current stage of the pandemic is the rapid rise of the stock market over the past few weeks. Even junk companies that have no positive news are getting swept up in the rally. (And that’s despite the announcement that the positive unemployment data released on Friday was flawed.) Part of that was due to the fact that some traders were shorting everything in sight, and they had to cover their positions. The bigger part is that there’s some irrational exuberance due to the US (as well as Canada) opening up for business once again.

I would be lying if I said the stock market rally didn’t benefit me, and I seldom lie. Still, some part of me wonders if all these hope-fueled gains will get reversed in just a month or two, once the second wave of covid arrives. In a way, it’s a bet: pandemic versus the future. If I side with pessimism, I should cash out and brace myself for more bad news. If I choose to be an optimist, at least just this once, I’ll ride the stock market’s rally into the bright tomorrow. To quote Robert Heinlein, “Don’t ever become a pessimist… a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun, and neither can stop the march of events.” I think I know which way I’ll go.

And meanwhile, even by the most basic official count, the US had more covid deaths so far in June than in the entire month of March…