Linda, I haven't been much active on Prodigy lately but I do know that you, Mark and Bob might be at odds lately for whatever reasons. I don't know how long you have been on Prodigy but I am a Prodigy classic member since 1991. I have been reading many, if not all, of Mark's and Bob C's posts since mid 1995. I personally do not know neither of these two nor do I care what they do for living and what their credentials are. My personal opinion is that Mark is a savvy stock picker and Bob Constantino is an enthusiastic BB contributor who follows Mark's picks very closely.
I too bought ESCI mainly because of their recommendation and I lost money on one trade and made quite a bit on the other two trades. On the other hand, I took notice of GENZL because of Mike Burke and Mark Moran. Beyond that, I did a bit of my own research and entered and exited my GENZL trades at the right times. That may be due to sheer luck!
While I bought ESCI mainly due to Mark's investment savvy and Bob's updates, the decision to buy is mine and I am resposible if I make money or lose my shirt. Given the market conditions, you or any one else could have lost money whether you bet on Intel or on ESCI. The point is, the devil is in your mind - not with some one hyping and cheating you in to buying the stock.
Speaking of hyping I do not consider neither Mark nor Bob to be hypists. However I do think that Bob tend to get carried away once in a while. That is not good enough reason to attribute malaise to Bob's enthusiasm.
Also, you might have seen another column on Prodigy - Mohan's List! I started that thread and have been recommending some stocks since May 1996. Some did well and some tanked. On MEMC and Citrix I was lucky enough to warn others about impending disaster. I could not see it coming for Hologic (still nothing wrong fundamentally - as far as I can see.) Luckily, to my knowledge, nobody was hurt badly on any one of the stocks I recommended. I believe that this is true with Mark's picks as well. On the average, if you or any one stick to a discipline, you wouldn't have lost a lot of money on any single stock that Mark recommended.
It is easy to pass the blame on to some one else - tough to be brave and accept resposibility for one's own actions.
Good luck!
-Mohan |
