Friday Trading
- Peter K F Cheung SBS
- Oct 15, 2021
- 2 min read
FADE IN.
Act 1
INT. SITTING ROOM - EARLY MORNING
PETER taps the Yahoo!Finance icon on his mobile screen
PETER (V.O.): Friday trading of stocks will begin soon. I feel so excited.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Trading was suspended last Wednesday and Thursday due to Typhoon Kompassu and Chung Yeung Festival.
Peter reads finance news.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): My knowledge and experience in trading stocks in the market place are limited.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): To refine my Friday trading strategy, I need to research on the stocks' price performance and the listed companies' business performance.
Reading.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Internet has made stocks' information and online trading so accessible and user-friendly, especially to me as a late comer.
Act 2
FLASHBACK
INT. RECEPTION - MORNING (Days ago)
Retreating into a quiet corner, Peter is reading his stock watch list as a FRIEND#1 chats with him.
FRIEND#1: What are you doing here?
PETER: Trying to determine what stocks to buy.
FRIEND: Young ones can do their online trading via a few taps on their mobiles.
PETER (V.O.): For the past month, I've been doing like that too!
RETURN TO PRESENT
INT. RESTAURANT - AFTERNOON
Peter chats with FRIENDS#2 & #3 over tea.
PETER: Did you say you put your share certificates inside safe-deposit boxes?
FRIEND#2: We like to do that in the traditional way.
PETER: And how do you do the orders?
FRIENDS#3: We ring our broker.
PETER (V.O.): They've been investing in stocks for a long time.
FRIEND#2: What have you been investing?
Peter shares his online Investment List. Friends#2 & #3 can see the total amount Peter has invested.
FRIEND#3: How long did it take for you to build your portfolio?
PETER: A month.
FRIEND#2: That's very aggressive. It has taken us a long time to invest that much. We don't like loosing our money.
PETER: I want to become a shareholder of the businesses that I like. And I want to see if my predictive power can be as good as fund managers.
FRIEND#3: Fund managers trade with others' money. You're using yours.
PETER: I accept that trading has profits or losses.
FRIEND#2: We've seen many retirees doing miserably in stocks speculation.
FRIEND#3: It's just like gambling.
PETER: I use my idle money to invest. I haven't sold any of my stocks yet.
FRIEND#3: A caveat. Trading stocks can be addictive.
PETER: True, I do crave to invest daily.
FRIEND#2: See how well would be your portfolio performance the next time we meet.
EXT. MTR - LATER
Cabin. Peter checks stock prices with his mobile.
PETER (V.O.): It's Friday afternoon already. I haven't bought any stocks yet. I need to adjust the price of my orders. It's hard to buy stocks at their rock-bottom prices.
Having tapped on the mobile screen, we soon hear Ding-Ding sounds. Peter checks the notifications.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I've a hunch that if I waited just because of the minor price difference, I'll regret missing the buy-low opportunities.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Succeeding in buying low-price stocks induces pleasure. I've become emotionally attached to it.
Act 3
INT. SITTING ROOM - EVENING
Mobile in hand, Peter checks his Investment List.
PETER (V.O.): Stock trading time is now a good time for me.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): My life style for the past month has changed a lot. I want to prove I can also be a good investor.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): But I'll stay diversified and focused on my primarily long-term investment goal.
We hear the TV reporting stock price and finance news of the day.
FADE OUT
THE END
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