Your points are well taken, Greg. However, if you look at longer than the last quarter, you see that this is the third major pullback for AOL over the last four years, and each time the turnaround came when things looked the bleakest.
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I think the 96 downturn was the worst, because it really looked as if AOL might go down due to its technical problems with phone lines, unlimited service, and profit margins. I for one really thought the game was over for AOL. Today I can only wish that I had loaded up back then. Today's crisis is unusual, in that I can't find any reason for it, other than it went up too fast and a lot of investors took profits, and I can't blame them for that. But this is not an AOL crisis, this is an internet crisis, and is not even a crisis, but part of the risk of investing in a new technology area. Will AOL weather this storm? I don't know, but I am going to go by past history, by the way they keep executing, and by the growth of the internet. Having said that, I think every investor needs to understand the volatility of these stocks, and needs a well balanced portfolio, otherwise it is gambling.
JMHO |
