The Weirdest Coincidence
Here is something weird that happened to me yesterday, which I am still trying to understand as I write this.
Last Sunday, I was browsing through my collection of books to look for something about starting a business, and how to make money, etc. As I was doing this, something caught my eye. Of all the books and novels stacked there, there was this old, withered book that I got my hands on. It was the book of Irving I. Ackerman, "How to Invest and Win in the Philippine Stock Market". I borrowed this book from my father, Mario Domingo,about three years ago. I looked at it and said to myself that this is a good basic book on making money in the stock market. I opened it and started reading about how Eliseo P. Ocampo described Ackerman as the "Compleat Stockbroker"
Compleat Stockbroker
Mr. Ocampo said of Mr. Ackerman,
"A lot of people say that, if you want to succeed in the stock market, you have to trust your stockbroker a lot more than you trust your wife (incidentally, they say it doesn't work the other way around) and Irving you would want to trust unequivocably at first meeting. His face exudes it- it is an honest face and easy to look at despite the well-defined partida of a bygone era. When he speaks, you listen. You listen because he talks sense, because he makes you feel he knows what he is talking about, and because you always know what he is talking about. And he can talk, too, if you happen to touch the proper nerve, always with an optimism that doesn't fail to infect. When the market is down, flat on its back, you won't catch him with a long face or crying on somebody else's shoulder. He is liable to tell you, instead, "It could be worse. Anyway, there is no other way for the market to go but up." If you play the market, Irving is one guy you'd sure be happy to be with..."
The Obituary
I thought to myself that I found a great book so the next day, Monday, I devoured it and read it the whole day even in the LRT while going to work and when I went home. The next morning, Tuesday, I was talking with my father outside the store and I asked him if investing in Philex Mining Corporation and Atlas Consolidated was still a good investment. He said no, and said that those companies are no longer earning as much as they used to be. Then, I told him that I read in Irving Ackerman's book that during the late 1980s, it is good to buy stocks from the said companies because of continued yearly financial growth.
While, we were talking, my mother showed us the Philippine Star newspaper, and to our astonishment, there was the obituary of Irving I. Ackerman, 87, who died on January 17, 2009, the day after I accidentally got hold of his book "How to Invest and Win in the Philippine Stock Market".
I would like give my condolences to the family of the late Irving I. Ackerman, he is definitely a great teacher and a strong pillar to the development of the Philippine Stock Market.
I will continue reading his book and try to find a copy of his other masterpiece "Guide to Some Pitfalls in Business". Hopefully, by reading these I can here his distant voice and give me some advice on how I can win in the Philippine Stock Market.
Farewell, Irving I. Ackerman and thank you.
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