**OT** I agree with you on the speculative aspect of today's market. I find it very hard to get enthusiastic about investing when everybody else is. As somebody said, one ought to get very scared of the market when almost nobody else is! But don't you think that there has already been a stealth bear market over the last few years in almost all the stocks other than the top 50 or 100 names? The numbers certainly seem to say so.
Even as I pursue my investment strategy, I am careful not to tread on the "story stocks" -- even if they qualify per my criterion. For instance, I am not so crazy about Wal-Mart right now, although it does make it through my screen. To some extent, I feel the same way towards GE and HWP also. I tend to gravitate towards the relatively obscure ones, like MO (my favorite for a long-term bet) and MMM. In general, I pick the ones that have fallen out of favor and are below the speculators' radar screens, like DIS and MRK over the last year or so, for instance. And yes, I tend to focus more on the Dow stocks, though I do scout around and pick up stocks like SYY, PLL and ABT.
As Warren Buffett once said -- "Price is what you pay; value is what you get", and "The higher you pay, the lower your return; and the lower you pay, the higher your return". How many investors today can recognize the wisdom in that? |
