WAMU like a washed up Shamu
When WAMU stock first tanked from 60 bucks to 3 bucks, that’s when I started to get a notice… thinking “ah crap, bank failure, here we come” I’m not afraid of banks failing… but what I afraid of is the damn herding effect. It’s not the actual event, but the response from the masses.
If I watch a movie and someone screams out fire, I’m not really afraid of the fire. I’m afraid of the idiots screaming and running, trampling all over me and whoever I’m with. The only reason I would run is to make sure I don’t get run over.
When the stock tanked to $3, I wasn’t worried about getting my money out more so I was worried about what the masses would do. In my branch, i was the second person that month to ask for entire balance of account. Sure, though it’d be measly tiny (for now), but shoot, it was MY money. The dude asked me why I’m taking it out. I should’ve replied “sex change operation” so they don’t give me a whole slew of sales pitches on why I should stay. Never knew taking money out of a failing bank could be so rough.
I still had 19 bucks in my account (thanks to stupid PayPal and their delayed everything, but that’s another post) so I figured, shoot, it’s not life savings but I want to eat lunch today. So I went. The branch I go to is really tiny (maybe 500 sq. ft or so) and it was JAM packed. I waited at least 15 minutes, when usually, the wait is about 1-3 minutes. And it wasn’t over. When I was ahead of the line, the line behind me got LONGER. People were nervously filling out withdrawal forms or what not. Then the dreaded words from the teller
Sorry. There’s a stop on withdrawals.
I am not sure if he meant a stop on that particular person’s account … or stop on 100% (or some significant) withdrawals.. but those words made people stop what they were doing and look at that teller.
I’m guessing it’s probably nothing since I did get my 18 bucks (I wanted to leave $1 so I can keep my free WAMU account open) but damn, the line got longer and longer.
I don’t know what’s wiser: being calm + patient or predicting trends and acting on it when the eye of the storm is scaring the herd. Maybe I’ll spend $18 bucks printing + mailing flyers to other WAMU customers to leave while they can. *muahahha* (evil grin)
Recent Comments