Public market, where have you gone?
Wednesday, February 28, 2007 at 07:46AM by Charlie O'Donnell The market crashed or something yesterday.... or so I heard.
It really is amazing how far I've gotten away from paying attention to public markets. I'm a finance guy by background, and when I was in college, I rode the boom and bust like everyone else.
But, when I graduated in 2001 and took a job in the private equity group at GM, I started to get away from it... focusing more on pricing multiples when we were doing buyouts than anything else. By the time I got to an early stage VC firm, what the public market did from day to day was just a distant memory.
Now that I'm on the product side... who knows. I just toss the max amount allowable (hey, its pretax, why wouldn't you?) into my 401k, set it and forget it. I don't really believe I can "beat the markets" so I allocate based on risk tolerance. I guess as a homeowner I'm investing more in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn real estate than anything else at the moment.
Following the public market, to me, is a fulltime job, and I just don't have the time anymore. I pop on TraderMike every now and then just to see what he's up to, but man, that's a lot to keep up with. Not for me, not anymore. Sorry markets... I'm on autopilot.
Reader Comments (4)
Even if your 401k is on auto pilot, looking at who's coming around to PaidContent mixers and Silicon Alley 2.0 breakfasts and Founders Club parties, we see the very same publicly traded companies looking to buy, work with, or compete with YOUR Web 2.0 / new media / VC-funded company.
Point being: What happens in the public markets affects the private markets. Am I wrong?
BTW, thanks for the mention and link. I'll have to try to finally meet you in person next time up up in NYC.
Or if you've heard any rumblings about VCs scaling back investments, etc.