Back in February, billionaire retailer Gerry Harvey implored investors to "sell your boat, sell your car, sell your house, buy Harvey Norman shares" after the market wiped 12.45 per cent off the company's value in one session, responding to its weaker than expected first-half result (which was in no small part down to the $20.67 million write-down of, and $4.57 million trading losses from, Harvey Norman's inexplicable 50 per cent stake in a Coomboona dairy farm).

"They're all mad," Gerry insisted. "If the share price goes down to $4 then sell your house." It closed last week at $3.65.