Goal, Goal, Goal!

That is the sound coming from many pubs and apartments. Not in my case though, because in the Karas family, football (soccer) was never high on the list of interests. That is how it goes from generation to generation, and even my children show little passion for the sport.?

Fascinated, however, I like to listen to the conversations of real fans. They can recount statistics and results from legendary games that took place decades ago. However, in order to appear in my field of vision, a game must first leave the football world and enter into the general perception. ?

Ma(ra)donna image with halo

For example, if you visit the Italian city of Naples, it is impossible to avoid the topic of football. Diego Maradona seen on every corner, after all, as he was the Argentine star kicker who joined the SSC Naples team in 1984 and led it to the Italian championship title twice.?

Even I know about the goal by the “hand of God” in 1986, when Argentina won 2-1 against England - with Maradona as the national player. However, Google just helped me with the details - a real fan surely knows that in his or her sleep.

If information only reaches us when it exceeds our own perception threshold, there is no escape. However, caution is also called for here.

Beer and money

When Maradona scored his famous goal, the Vienna Stock Exchange had just awoken from its slumber. If you ordered a beer in the garden of the Fischerbr?u, the term “stock market” drowned out the rustle of leaves on the chestnut trees. Interrupted by short sips of Fischer-Helles, freshly minted stock market experts exchanged their heroic stories. Yes, back then experts were still almost exclusively men. Unfortunately.

Since 1985, Fischerbr?u, Vienna's first and oldest pub brewery on Billrothstra?e, has been brewing its own beer. In the same year, American investor Jim Rogers kissed the Vienna Stock Exchange awake by investing and letting the world know about it.

Living means learning

The wave of privatization brought new companies to the stock exchange starting in 1987: OMV, Austrian Airlines, Verbund, EVN. A speculative bubble, the likes of which Vienna had not seen since the 1920s, the groundswell gripped all parts of the population.

It was during this time that my lifelong interest in the stock market was awakened. It was an expensive initiation process, because the crash in share prices in the early 1990s left us newcomers to the stock market with heavy losses. The only good thing about this experience was that it was at the beginning of my career. Therefore, over the decades, the important experience became an anecdote rather than a personal drama.

Investing with passion

2022 was also a difficult financial year as in some cases, share prices fell sharply. However, there is one major difference compared to the 1990s: share prices may have fallen, but the companies in the Gutmann World Share Portfolio are solid and continue to be successful.

Over the long-term, share prices will always follow the economic results of the underlying companies. In the short-term, however, they fluctuate strongly around fair value. The market is teetering between high heaven and low heaven. These states of mind unite football fans and stock market investors alike; both love with passion.

Kl?rchen's Conclusion

The first Sunday of Advent is already behind us, so the Gutmann Viewpoint may also end with a poem for once. Goethe's words from "Kl?rchen's Song," from the play Egmont, are certainly suitable for you as well:

Cheerful

and tearful,

and laden with care,

Swaying,

delaying,

'tween hope and despair

Joyous now, heav'n high,

now dying with dole,

Happy alone

is the true loving soul.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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