12:00a.m. 12th October 2008

William Cox is looking for a bargin on the stock market after recent price reductions in share prices.......Warren Lynan /178818b

At a time when so many are thinking their glass is not only half-empty, but smashed and broken too, there are people like William Cox who can see great opportunities.

The 74-year-old self-funded retiree has never owned a single share in his life, but the number of sows’ ears piling up on stock exchanges all over the world could prove the perfect silk purse fodder for opportunistic investors like him.

“I always thought they were too high, so I never bought them,” he said, of share prices. “You see companies worth $1billion and their shares are worth $2billion.

“But I have been watching them lately and if they keep going down in price, I’ll buy them. I’ll most likely look at bank shares and things like BHP. (The crisis) will probably be a gain for me.”

The Twin Water retiree said he was also forced to consider shares as another income source because of the concerning negative impact of falling interest rates on his bank balance.

“You can’t shield yourself against that unless you buy shares,” he said.

“A lot of people have lost a lot of money, but people are foolish to pull it out of shares, because it won’t stay like that forever.

“If you’ve lost 25% of your money in shares and you pull it out, you’ve still lost 25%. But if you leave it in there, and it goes back up, you’ll still get your 7% return.”