A Karmic Story

When I was a junior trader at Wells Fargo, @Dr. Robbie Jones told me a classic (and he insists true) trading story. It seems a good time to share.

Dr. Jones had a friend (let’s call him Greg) who was active in the egg futures market, back when there was such a market. Egg futures were physically delivered, meaning if you were long when the contract expired you bought yourself a bunch of eggs. One early morning Greg’s phone rang.

“Hey - we got your eggs. Where do you want them?” said a gruff voice on the phone, clearly a grizzled stock yard worker.

Oh no, thought Greg (he probably thought something much worse than that, but I’m keeping it G-rated). I completely forgot I was long egg futures! “Um...when you say you got them...where are they?”

“Chicago. In a stock car at the commodity rail depot.” said the voice on the other end of the line.

“And how many eggs are mine?” asked Greg.

“Twelve thousand,” said the voice, growing impatient.

“Is the car refrigerated?”

“Yes.”

“Give me your number, I’ll call you right back.” said Greg, and then he hung up. Always the entrepreneur and quick on his feet, Greg proceeded to call all of the local Chicago supermarkets with a great deal on eggs. By the end of the day he had sold his entire stock car at a tidy profit. 

Never one to pass up an opportunity to press when luck was on his side, Greg took his undeserved gains and sought out a new investment. It didn’t take him long to find the opportunity to be seed capital in a turtle farm in the Philippines. 

At the time, according to Dr. Jones, there was concern about US meat supply, and there was great enthusiasm about the potential for imported turtle meat to fill any gap our domestic cow production might experience. Greg went all in with his ill-gotten egg gains.

Shortly after his investment, the US Government announced that no turtles (or turtle meat) would be allowed to enter the states. Greg was devastated, but his turtle farm partners insisted this was no big deal. There is a HUGE market for turtle meat in Asia. But they needed a little more cash, as the US announcement would require some repositioning of the business. Greg obliged, confident luck was still on his side.

Later that month, a monsoon traveled right through Greg’s turtle farm. The turtles were all liberated, as was Greg from his money.

The moral of the story: Karma is a great leveling force. Remember that when you are both up and down.