>> need some tax explanations from you more seasoned pros.
Buoa mattina, Rosa. You'll find plenty of tax help on the SI boards, but I'd like to address your underlying situation instead, using concepts derived from some of the most famous investors of our time:
Warren Buffet admonishes us to never invest in stocks with borrowed money. I know many consider him to be old fashioned, but imho, his advice is sound. I have seen many of my friends do permanent damage to their portfolios and their financial futures by attempting to use margin to leverage their returns. Plus the summer slump season with the nutzo y2k phenomena approaching is a particularly awful time to be in margin.
Peter Lynch cautions us about picking our flowers and watering our weeds. It's an easy trap to fall in to: I need some cash, so I'll sell qcom because I have a great profit in it, but I'll keep XYZ because I'm down 50% and can't afford to sell it. Eventually, you end up with a front lawn that looks like the Mojave Desert.
Lindy Bill advocates using The Russian Army method of investing. Send reinforcements to your winners <QCOM>, and abandon your weak positions. Cold, ruthless, but effective.
I'm guessing that Q didn't get you into this margin call situation. Consider selling the stocks that did, and putting the remaining capital into Q or one of your other winners. Oh, and consider getting out of margin all together.
Great minds like Buffet, Lynch, and LindyBill are all urging you to re-examine your investment strategy <g>.
Uncle Frank |
