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American Morning
Interview With Bob McCooey
Aired July 23, 2002 - 07:18 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Investors have pulled $1.5 trillion, with a "T" now, trillion dollars from the stock market in just the last two weeks alone, and yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average down again 234 to 7784, the 10th triple-digit loss in a month. Many analysts say investors have simply lost confidence in stocks. That might be the biggest understatement of the day.
It is tough on investors, but what about the traders who have to face the hungry bears day in and day out?
Let's talk to one of them on the front lines every morning. Bob McCooey runs The Griswold Company. He's the CEO and works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Bob, good morning to you.
BOB MCCOOEY, CEO, THE GRISWOLD COMPANY: Good morning to you, Bill.
HEMMER: I hope it's a good morning anyway. Take me back to yesterday and the previous sessions. What are the conversations like on the floor? We see so many faces of exasperation in the pictures that come out of there. But what's happening down there? What are people saying?
MCCOOEY: Well, I think you have to understand one thing, Bill. We are not immune to what's going on either. We are people with 401(k)s or I guess now 201(k)s, and our investments are going down the same as anybody else. So what we really try to do, I think as professionals, is walk in the building every morning and put that aside and make sure that we can do the best for our customers each and every day.
But it's as frustrating and upsetting, and we feel the same anger towards CEOs, and all of the same emotions that any human being has or any investor out there is having, we're feeling them down here also. And it's difficult to put them aside in the face of what we do every day, but that's what we have to do.
HEMMER: Try and put your finger on this feeling, though. What happens down there when the market literally swings hundreds of points, or let's say 100 points on the conservative side, within a matter of minutes?
MCCOOEY: Well, what really happens is that sometimes that happens so quickly that you almost don't realize it. I was commenting to people yesterday that the market was down 200 points, and we turned around, and it was down 40 points. And those amazing volatile, almost violently volatile swings have become almost commonplace over the past couple of weeks.
But what is really the crux of what we do down here is to put those aside and try to get the customer the best possible price all of the time. And so, therefore -- but those intraday volatile swings kind of get moved out, as we focus on the stocks...
HEMMER: Hey, Bob...
MCCOOEY: ... that we're trading...
HEMMER: Hey, but what do you tell your customers?
MCCOOEY: Well...
HEMMER: How do you weather this?
MCCOOEY: Well, we try to push them the same way as anyone does, towards the long-term, towards watching out and looking for the opportunities in the market, for, you know, our retirements, our children's college educations, those things that are hopefully further out in the future. We hear about the stories about retirees who are still exposed to the market, and we feel for them.
But at the same time, we're looking for opportunities, especially people my age who are in the market, or those a little bit younger who have come in...
HEMMER: What are you, mid-30s, Bob? Is that right?
MCCOOEY: I'm 36.
HEMMER: Yes, hey, I'm about you age. Listen, the people I really feel sorry for are our parents...
MCCOOEY: Absolutely.
HEMMER: ... you know, look at retirement, 60 and above. I think if there is a silver lining for people of our generation, it is much better to get this at 35 than it is at 65. Would you agree?
MCCOOEY: Oh, absolutely. With children on the horizon about a decade out beginning college, and then for a number of years beyond that, I'm looking at this as an opportunity more than a problem for me. I'm looking at opportunities in the marketplace to buy good stocks and to continue to invest in the good funds that I have had for a long time, who have taken the same kind of hits as everyone else's funds.
HEMMER: It's tough to be a bull, though, don't you think? MCCOOEY: It is. I think, unfortunately, we have all grown up in the past decade with kind of that bull mentality, and we look at stocks from the long side rather than, unfortunately, from the short side, which has been the way that people have made money so far this year.
So therefore, we're looking for long-term and long-side opportunities in the marketplace. And it does get frustrating when you put your money on the line, which I have done a number of times during the pullbacks this year, and had -- you know, had some negative -- certainly some negative influence by the market and some negative returns.
HEMMER: Well, listen, I only have a few seconds left here, and I can underline that last point you made right there. Do you have a sense, though, of maybe not necessarily what will turn this around, but maybe what will stop it?
MCCOOEY: Well, there are two things that could stop it. One could be the capitulation event that everyone is talking about. But in the absence of that, which I think as more people talk about it, it's less likely that we're going to get it. But we may have this kind of rolling bottom or rolling negative bottom over the course of a number of trading sessions, Bill, and then hopefully we can begin to move higher as things begin to clarify amongst all of the companies and the economy, hopefully, begins to pick up.
HEMMER: Hang in there, all right?
MCCOOEY: We'll try.
HEMMER: Wow. Bob McCooey, The Griswold Company, working the floor of the New York Stock Exchange -- many thanks, OK? Again, the markets open up in about two hour's time, and we shall see which way we go then.
MCCOOEY: Absolutely.
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