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stocks

On-Yomi: シュ — Kun-Yomi: かぶ

Elements:

stocks, tree, wood, vermillion, drop, not yet, one, tree, wood

Heisig story:

The stocks bought and sold on the market by the tens of millions each day get their name from a comparison to a healthy tree, in which one takes "stock" in the hopes that it will grow and produce more and more trees like itself. Usually good stocks are referred to as "blue chip," but here we are asked to associate the key word with the color vermilion, perhaps because one can assess the value of a tree from the color of its autumn leaves.

Koohii stories:

1) [cellophane] 12-10-2007(306): Which tree would you buy stocks in - the healthy one on the left, or the one with only one vermilion leaf left on the right?

2) [ihatobu] 2-3-2007(145): Ideally, one buys stocks when a company is young, "green," and rapidly growing – then sells them just before the last vermillion leaf falls off, and a period of dormancy or limited growth begins.

3) [shimouma] 27-3-2008(40): I have a hot tip for you. Buy stocks in a company called "Tree and Vermillion Ltd".

4) [CarlKenner] 7-7-2007(25): Don't think of the stock-market. Instead imagine the wooden medieval stocks used to hold a prisoner's head and hands between two blocks of wood. The wood in this case is vermilion coloured, as it often was. Imagine SHOOING away the guards and blowing the stocks open with a big "kaboom" sound. (ON reading SHU, Kun reading kabu).

5) [oRis1024] 24-7-2008(21): You buy stocks when they're new and green like a normal tree and sell it when it's vermillion-HOT and pricy.

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