JEDDAH, 9 April 2006 — The stock market has been the news that people in the Kingdom have been following closely of late. The market is the favorite territory for the big sharks, and a place of bountiful dreams for the little fish. It provides hope for those seeking more wealth.

Some Saudis have liquidated equity — family homes and properties — to invest in the market. Others have taken out loans. Many of these people thought they knew what they were doing. Others didn’t care; they thought they knew just enough about the little red and green arrows on the web page of their portfolio to make money. When the arrows were green, people were all smiles. When they were red, people were angry.

Last month’s market dip sent many people to the exit door, pledging never to return to the game. Despite the fact that some people lost fortunes in the gamble of short-term stock speculation (rather than long-term investment), many of the stories were quite interesting, even funny.

There was a story just the other day of teachers getting into a fistfight right in front of the classroom over bad stock tips. There was a story of a husband-to-be losing his dowry to the market after foolishly speculating with what should have gone to his future wife; the wedding was canceled.

The newspaper Al-Nadwa reported in late March that a government employee with a salary of SR4,000 a month (about $1,066) rushed to take out a loan for SR100,000 (about $26,667), which, if he only made the minimum monthly payment, would take him 11 years to pay back. He opened a stock account.

In a month he had lost about 20 percent of his borrowed capital. Like a down-and-out Las Vegas gambler, he kept playing the game of short-term speculation, and kept losing. The more he bet the more he lost, and he didn’t learn soon enough the lines of a popular American song about gambling: “Know when to hold ‘em / know when to fold ‘em / know when to walk away / know when to run.”

He lost almost every borrowed halala by gambling on short-term stock speculation and now faces 11 years of debt repayment. Like many Saudis, this man was blinded by the hype and the ambition of a quick turnaround for profit.

Another victim, reported in a feature in Al-Nadwa about stock losers, took out a SR250,000 loan ($66,667). He wanted to break away from his paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle and live the life of a high roller. He dumped it all into the stock market.

Then health problems hit him. He needed surgery in his stomach. The procedure and recovery lasted a month. During the entire time he didn’t follow his portfolio. By the time he checked, he had lost a third of his original (and borrowed) investment. He was distraught to such a degree that his doctor advised him to stop checking his stock portfolio, as it was affecting his recovery from the surgery. The man conceded, pulled out his remaining investment and began strategizing on how to pay back his loan.

While long-term stock investors might be able to get by without checking their portfolios for a month, a short-term “gambling” speculator essentially depends on his close monitoring of day-to-day fluctuations.

As one Jeddah-based American citizen said about his long-term US stock portfolio, “If you check your stocks every day, you’ll go crazy. I check mine about once a week, but there have been times when I haven’t looked at my portfolio in months.”

Many of these failed speculators who sold their homes to play the market are now dreaming about imaginary fortunes in rented flats. Some lost only their savings and not their homes. These losers limped away, burdened by a loss of wealth, left with little more than a plan to pay back the money borrowed and lost on the gamble of playing quick in-and-out games on the cold, spinning wheel of capital.