The Short Seller by Elissa Brent Weissman

Author:Elissa Brent Weissman
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Chapter 21

Panic Buying

But then things started to get worse. Her mother had Monday off, so all the Sachs women went out to brunch. Lindy came home and found that her parents’ portfolio was down six percent on the day, and it was only eleven thirty a.m. Without even taking off her coat, she checked the newspaper home page, which told her that the holiday shopping season had been much worse than expected for retailers, and a big bank had reported record losses. “Shoot,” she said aloud. That sort of news could do anything to the stock market. She wondered if she should sell most of her stocks and not trade at all for a day or two. But then she heard her mother walking toward her room.

“Bad news?” asked her mother, who also had on her coat.

Lindy shut the laptop so her mother wouldn’t peek at the screen. “My stocks are down.”

“A lot?”

“For just a few hours, yeah.”

“It can all change in one day,” her mom said knowingly. “That’s why I’m glad Dad isn’t playing around right now. The more you risk, the more you can lose.”

“Yeah,” Lindy said, swallowing her guilt.

“Why don’t we do something fun to take your mind off of that? We can go see a movie, or maybe we can check out some of those boutiques Tracy likes. They’re starting to put out spring clothes already. Tracy has plans this afternoon, so I thought we could do something special, just me and you.”

“That sounds great,” Lindy said, hoping she sounded sincere. “Do you think I could just look at my portfolio for, like, a half hour before we go? The market is going crazy today.”

“Oh okay.” Her mother hovered at the door for a moment. Then she brightened. “Why don’t you show me what you do here,” she said with genuine enthusiasm. “You’ve gotten so into it, and I don’t even know how to download the stock thingamabob.”

Lindy could picture the screen that would pop up when she opened the computer. It would show, perfectly clearly—even to someone who thought you had to “download the stock thingamabob”—how much money she was trading with and how much money she’d lost this morning.

“Actually,” Lindy said, “I don’t think I need to check it. Let’s go.”

“Are you sure? I really am curious to see you do your stock thing.”

“No,” Lindy said. She stood up. “I can do that any day. Let’s go see a movie, since you’re home.”

Mrs. Sachs smiled and put her pocketbook on her shoulder. “All right! Let’s go!”

$ $ $

They caught a one p.m. movie and then went to a couple boutiques, so by the time they got back, the stock market was closed. And it was even worse than Lindy could have imagined. The market was so far down that almost all the money she made over the past week was gone. The lines on all her charts were in the shape of a rollercoaster—a slow, steady rise before a scream-inducing drop. In one day! Lindy thought angrily.

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