Witch Way to Wall Street?
Long Island New York - The AOL/Warner merger may be all the rage but it was a more subtle message that brought the Freakylinks spotlight to shine on Wall Street. An announcement by a witch that she was having an initial public offering of stock in her coven!
Carol Shandoni started gathering twice a month with other similar minded individuals to practice what she calls "white magic" in 1996. She relates it to Tupperware parties but, instead of selling plastic bowls and utensils, her group tries to harness the forces of the earth and spirits to shape events and foretell the future. Other women in her neighborhood have joined and the coven now has over 50 members. In 1998 the group started a consulting arm of the coven and advertised in a small financial magazine that they could help decide which stocks to pick in the fast growing Bull market.
"I did it almost as a lark," says Carol. "Our group had been using our powers to make lives easier for our members, you know, make sure the kid's teeth don't get cavities, helping out the lawn and garden to grow. Some of the girls were getting bored so I thought we try and branch out to bigger things.."
The lark caught on though. Steve Williamson, who buys and sells stock over the internet, saw the ad in the "Long Island Money Minder" newspaper and gave Carol a call.
"I thought it was an interesting idea," says Steve. "I mean they couldn't give me any worse tips than I was getting from friends who actually work on Wall Street. Plus they offered my money back if the tips didn't pan out in 30 days."
But the magically picked stocks that did go up in value and Steve cashed out of them a happy man. He told some others about the service and by the end of 1999 the coven had all the work they can handle.
Carol does not let the public or customers into ceremonies that involve picking stocks but says the ritual is based from obscure Celtic rites performed thousands of years ago to help insure a good harvest. All she would say was that, " . .they involve, the Wall Street Journal, a Ouija board and a lot of candles."
"We're swamped right now," says Carol. "With over 100 investors wanting tips we've had to change out meeting schedule to twice or three times a week. We've actually started turning customers away because we don't have time to use our powers properly. Lot's of my members have real jobs plus families so it's hard to stay focused on what the coven is doing. That's where we got the idea of offering stock. If we can get a large sum of money together we can get group health insurance and make other benefits available to the witches. That would be a real incentive for them to quit their regular jobs and work full time for The Coven Corporation.
The Coven Corporation is the official business name of the group and is what registered with the New York Stock Exchange for a Initial Public Offering on the 17th of February. Barring any complications, the stock should be available for sale around the second week of March. Carol is eagerly awaiting that day.
"It's going to be great," says Carol. I've already had people calling and asking me if they can buy 100 shares. Once we go legit I hope to open an office on Wall Street and offer our service full time. I want to call it "Wall Street Witchery"
